This is Our Story
by ThursdayNext88
Summary: A series of events in the life and relationship of Arya and Gendry. From when they first met, to when they realize their feelings, to the unknown future. Based on the prompts for Arya x Gendry week. Modern AU.
1. Phase One - Frenzy

-1Ned Stark was dead.

As long and as hard and as fast as she ran, Arya could not stop this from being true.

In the past, when she was upset about something, she would climb over the gate that surrounded the high school track and run until she was too exhausted to move, let alone think. Then she would lay on the grass in the field in the middle and stare at the sky, waiting for breath to return, for feeling to move back into her legs, for the calm that finally followed. Then, and only then, could she think about returning home, briefly showering, and then collapsing into bed.

Try as she might, her usual tactic for distraction did not work. Of course, the usual reasons for her running were not usually this upsetting. Sansa belittling her and telling her she would never fit in. Her mother, treating Jon differently. Her father, not bringing her with her brothers to the game, no matter how much she begged. Her father…

Unbidden, the tears she had been holding in began to stream down her face. This didn't slow her pace around the track. She knew where the curve of the track began, where the tar patching cracks on the blacktop would appear to stick to her shoes. These were as familiar to her as anything else she knew.

Again, she rounded a lap, passing by the stand where concessions were sold during football games and track meets. She felt the now too-familiar flow of snot down the back of her throat, and the light-headedness that accompanied it.

It was the salty streams flowing down her face, dripping down her neck, that kept her from seeing the figure in her path on the track, did not allow her to prepare for impact.

"_Oof!" grunted a male voice, followed by the sound of a body stumbling backwards and the hollow thud of basketballs. Arya stumbled over the prone figure on the ground in front of her and hit the track face first, pushing out her hands to break her fall, then her knee to stabilize herself. Sharp pain screamed out where she hit the pavement._

Slowly, she rolled to her side, then to her back, taking a moment to stare at the clouds above and begin to breathe again before she faced the person she knocked over. The force of impact had temporarily distracted her and stopped the tears leaking from her eyes, which made her feel slightly better about the confrontation she was currently facing. Taking a breath, Arya closed her eyes and wiped her face on her sweat-soaked t-shirt, and began to sit up.

Unfortunately for her, the person she had knocked to the ground had recovered faster than her, and had chosen that exact moment to get up, scoot over to her, and lean down to check on the young girl.

Their heads collided, and the guy she ran into recoiled, holding his hand to his head. So did she.

Arya lay back for a moment, contemplating the flock of birds above and the hum of the power lines in the distance, and the absurd situation she was now in. Then, glancing at the figure to make sure he wasn't in a trajectory with her rising body, she sat up, cleared her throat, and wiped her face once again, trying to rid herself of the crusty feeling of drying tears.

"Are you ok?" she asked, pushing back hair from her face.

"Watch where you're going much?" was the response she got. The person she had run into was gingerly sitting up as well, stretching his limbs and inspecting his hands to check for damage. His eyes briefly flashed with anger as he braced himself on his hand to get up.

"Sorry…" Arya murmured, and awkwardly rose to her feet, making sure not to put any pressure on the scrapes on her hands and knee. She tentatively bent down and began to herd errant basketballs back towards the guy she knocked over. He began to put them back in the mesh bag he was carrying the balls in originally.

He paused as she handed one of the orange balls back to him, muttering thanks under his breath. As he was not even looking in her direction, nor seemed like he had anything else to say to her, Arya took this as her cue to go, and began to painfully jog back around the track, wincing as her right leg stretched for her steps.

He mentally counted the balls he had taken from the equipment shed to make sure he had all of them, and glanced at the figure limp-running around the track. Sighing, he hefted the bag over his shoulder and crossed the field in the middle of the track, so he could intercept the young girl slowly making a lap. As he neared her, he could see blood oozing out of the scrape on her knee.

"Hey, kid!" he shouted, making Arya come to a stop with a frown on her face. "Come with me, I'll help get that cleaned up."

Sniffling, she looked at him, but did not move any closer.

"Listen, I'm sorry I was mad. But you shouldn't keep on going around bleeding. There are supplies back in the gym, and we can get you patched up enough to get back home."

Arya nodded slowly, and limped over to him, absent-mindedly fidgeting with a piece of gravel that was in her hand, wincing as she touched the tender flesh.

Adjusting the bag over his shoulder, he turned to the girl next to him, "So, kid, what's your name?"

"I'm _not_ a kid!"she protested, scowling at the taller boy.

"Well, you're a kid to me, so get over it, pipsqueak." As if to prove that he was far older, he mover his hand to his chin and stroked the few wispy hairs that were growing there. "But if I'm going to be helping you, you should at least give me your name."

After a resentful glare, she said "Ayra" and looked down at her feet.

"Gendry," he volunteered, glancing at her. "Cool to meet you, pipsqueak."

With a flash of anger that he did not expect from a girl of her age, she hit him with a surprising amount of force. "My name. Is ARYA."

It was at this point that two realizations hit him. First was that Robb, who was in his English class, had been out of class for over a week, and had only returned yesterday, pale and withdrawn. From the whispers he had heard around school, Robb's father had died in a car crash. Second was that Robb had talked about his little sister, who was a total daddy's girl, whose name was…Arya.

Blushing red, he began to stammer at her. "I'm sor- I mean, I heard th- that is to say- what I mean- aah, shi-shoot!" Gendry narrowly avoided swearing in front of the girl, feeling like he shouldn't, at very least, mess that up.

"It's fine," the small girl said with an air of finality. "I'd rather not talk about it."

They walked in silence down the hill to the school. As they reached the door, he fumbled in his pocket for a key ring, located the correct key, and held it up triumphantly, then put the key in the lock.

Arya was the first to break the silence she had created. "How did you get keys to the building?"

Gendry smiled proudly, once again touching the hairs on his chin. "Coach was looking for someone to help coach middle school basketball, since he's having trouble making enough time to run drills and do individual practices with the players on his own. He picked me to help out with it, so I get to come up with practice schedules and take care of the equipment. Since he can't always be here to let me in to prepare, he convinced the principal that I was responsible enough to have keys to the school and his office."

He made sure to leave out the part where he could only get in one door to the school, but had no access to other areas, and only had the key to the outer coaches' office, but not the cabinets within that held student records. It wouldn't do to have this kid thinking he didn't have enough authority to get into the really important stuff. Now that he was in high school, his reputation was a bigger deal to him.

"Great," Arya said as he opened the door for her. He wasn't sure if she was congratulating him on his access to the building, or pleased with the air conditioning in the building. She raised her hand to her face again to tuck back a strand of hair and winced as the salt from her sweat and tears touched her scraped hand.

"This way," Gendry gestured, towards the door to the locker rooms, "we'll go through this way to Coach's offices to get some bandages." One of the less fun parts of his new job as assistant coach was taking over care of players with minor medical mishaps, like scraped elbows and knees, or those who got hit in the head with the ball. This did, however, give him some knowledge of first aid, which seemed like it would come in handy right about now.

Arya paused as he pushed open the door, looking at the sign. "This is the _boys_ locker room. I can't go in there."

"It's fine," he replied, gesturing for her to follow him. "It's the weekend, no one's here, and everyone goes through this door, since it's the most direct route in."

Frowning, she followed him in, looking as if an alarm were going to go off as she stepped in. Gendry rolled his eyes at her expression.

"The principal at my school gives us a big lecture every year about how we're supposed to go into the bathrooms for girls if you're a girl, and boys if you're a boy, and how we'd get into so much trouble if we broke the rule," Arya said defensively.

"What grade are you in?"

"Fifth," she replied. "Can you hurry up with the stuff? This is really starting to hurt."

He pointed to the doorway that led to the bathroom. "Go wash your hands with soap and water, then come on over to the office. I'll get everything out and set up."

Once again, Arya stared at him.

"What?"

"It's a BOYS bathroom."

Gendry closed his eyes. He felt like he had to be patient with her, no matter how silly her qualms were. "I promise you won't get in trouble. I'll be way over there in the office. It'll just be a lot easier for you to get washed up here, rather than go to the other side of the gym to get into the girls' locker room."

"Fine," she said, walking through the doorway. She paused and looked back, then the older boy waved her on as he turned and pulled out his keys again.

Truthfully, Arya was glad for a minute alone. She wanted to wash her face too, since it probably looked as terrible as it felt. She splashed some water to clear up the worst of it, but that did little to make her feel better. After a moments consideration, she dunked he head under the tap and turned the water on. As the cool water spread over her hair and washed down her face, she began to feel a little better.

It was only after she removed her head from the sink that she realized the flaw in her plan; namely, that she didn't have a towel, and now had a head of dripping hair. She squeezed it out as best she could, an used a paper towel to try to blot her hair.

Gendry was waiting for her in the coach's office, as he said. In front of him was an opened red and white box, and he held a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a cotton swab in his hands. "Sit down," he said, gesturing to the chair in front of him. "And dry off," he said as he tossed a gym towel her way.

The younger girl obeyed and sat herself down in the desk chair that seemed to have been in the office since the seventies, with the stuffing poking out of a tear in the side. She toweled her hair gratefully.

Gendry pulled over a box and put it in front of her. "Leg up here, let's take care of that first," he said, pouring some peroxide on the swab and pressing it to her leg. He cleaned her wounds and kept up a stream of questions and chatter to keep her from dwelling too much on the process. This was made difficult because she was constantly in motion - tapping her foot, adjusting the stray hair that kept bothering her, and fidgeting in the chair

Once he was finished, she stood up, and held out the towel. "Thanks…for everything. I'm sorry I ran into you…have a good day. I'll just head back to the track now."

"Wait," Gendry said, grabbing the towel from her and tossing it in a pile of dirty towels. "You shouldn't go running again."

"Why not?" she asked, looking slightly panicked that he was trying to dissuade her.

He didn't know how to broach the topic, but he couldn't ignore that Arya had been blinded by tears during her time around the track, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "You could- do more damage to your knee running around more. You should keep from running until tomorrow, just so it has time to heal a little bit." Gendry prayed she wouldn't call him on this, but he felt like he shouldn't let her go out and run and cry alone again.

"But…I…I just have to…do something." She was lost for words at this point, and stared at him lost.

He paused for a moment, looked at her, then grabbed a roll of athletic tape, a clipboard, and a pen from the cabinet behind him. "Come with me."

He led her through the locker room to the door to the gym, then through to the workout room. In the corner was a punching bag.

"This was something I used to do all the time when I wanted to stop thinking," Gendry said, gesturing to the bag hanging from the ceiling. "My dad got one for me and taught me how to hit it so I wouldn't get hurt."

He cringed as he mentioned his father, cursing himself for not having thought before speaking, but the younger girl didn't seem to notice his faux pas.

"Teach me?"

"Give me your hands…they're in better shape than your knee, so you should be fine. I'm going to take you up so you don't hurt yourself, but you should stop if it starts to sting." Silently, she nodded and extended her hands.

A few minutes later, Gendry sat relaxing on a bench on the other side of the room, making notes on his clipboard about training drills he wanted to run when Coach was out of practice next week, keeping on eye on Arya in the opposite corner. At first, she had started off slow, getting accustomed to the moments, but once she got the hang of it, was hitting the bag in a frenzy, as if her life depended on it. She breathed heavily and looked as though nothing else in the world mattered.

After some time, she slowed down, then slid to the floor, panting and exhausted. Concerned, he hopped over a bench to check on her.

"I'm fine," she gasped, staring up at him from the ground, "I just need to sit."

The catharsis he usually got from his sparring matches with the bag seemed to be working for Arya as well. She looked, for the first time that afternoon, as if she were at peace.

"Um…if you want, you can…um…wash up. I can give you an old gym uniform to wear home…." Gendry wasn't sure the best way to tell an ten-year old she needed to shower, and thus stumbled over his words again.

Arya accepted wearily and started walking back to the locker room, not caring at this point she was heading to the room for the wrong gender. Silently, Gendry followed her and gave her the necessities she would need, and went to the office to pack everything up. Once she was out again, he would walk her home, just to make sure she got back. Then, on Monday, he was going to talk to Robb Stark so that he could maybe do something for his little sister.

He didn't know why, but there was something about this girl that made him want to take care of her.


	2. Phase Two - Abandon

Note: I am not GRRM. Nor was I in Phase One. Just in case you were confused.

Sansa Stark was indubitably the worst person in the world.

Arya glared at the word-a-day calendar on her desk, tapping her pencil on her notebook. "Indubitably" was the word for today, and she found it very appropriate.

_Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ta-CRACK._

The tip had just broken off of her pencil, leaving a smear of lead on the blank page in her notebook, and a few splinters of yellow-painted wood. Angrily, she threw the offending writing instrument across her room, where it hit the wall with a THWACK and fell to the carpet below. That, however, did not satisfy Arya's ire, so her green eraser quickly followed suit. This, unlike the pencil, made a much more satisfying noise as it hit the wall.

Less satisfying was the fact that this drew the attention of her indubitably terrible sister.

"Arya," her older sister said, rapping on the door frame as she pushed open the door. "What was that?"

"Don't you know that knocking means that you should _wait_ to open the door, not just barge in?"

"I was just-"

"It's fine, I dropped my eraser, nothing's broken, nothing to worry about. Now would you please get out?"

"Jeez Arya, could you _be_ any more annoying?" Sansa said, slamming the door behind her, her long red hair swishing dramatically.

"Could you be any more annoying?" Arya mimed to her now-closed door, faking a flip of her own, much shorter, hair.

Sighing, she got up and picked up the fallen writing utensils and dug through her drawer for a pencil sharpener. She had others sharpened and ready to go, but she didn't want to get back to the essay she was supposed to be writing quite yet.

"Bothersome," she breathed to herself, looking at one of the word-a-day pages she had pinned to her bulletin board. The word itself wasn't important to her, it was the note written on it that had caused her to save the page.

The year before he had died, her father had purchased a page-a-day calendar for his youngest daughter for Christmas. Initially, she had been upset that he had opened the wrapping on it, and didn't much care for calendars, so left it on her desk, with the page for January 1st showing. ("Laud" was the word for that day.) This was how the calendar remained, until April. Until the car crash.

That night, after their mother had come home to tell them the news, and they had all gone to bed, Arya stayed up. She couldn't cry, not then, she couldn't read, she couldn't concentrate on anything. Not sure what to do, she turned to the calendar she had barely looked at and started methodically ripping off pages.

January 2nd - jape. January 3rd - harangue. January 4th - caterwaul. January 5th - verbose. On and on the pages went. Encumber, aegis, festoon.

She stopped when she came to February 2nd - bothersome. A note underneath the definition was written in her father's handwriting. '_Arya - hope the groundhog doesn't see his shadow. Once winter is over, you can help me start planning our summer trip!_' A small cartoon of a groundhog was drawn next to the note.

Almost reverently, she had removed the page, taking care not to tear off a corner. Her fingers swept over the note, feeling the depressions where the pen had written. This was her gift from her father, something for her and her alone. This page she set aside with care, and turned back to the remainder of the calendar. If there was one note, then…there would be more. Ned Stark was never one to do anything halfway.

Sure enough, several pages later (February 19th - uncanny) was a note on Bran's birthday, reminding her to treat her brother nicely, for at least today. This page she also set aside, with "bothersome." There were notes interspersed on important dates, an antidote when a word reminded him of a story about her, or sometimes just a page with 'I love you' written on it. All she pages she stacked up until she reached today's date. She had her hand up to rip off the next page, when she stopped herself. She could spend the rest of the night looking for these notes and binge on them at once or…she could wait, like her father intended, and savor each one as it came up. It took all of her willpower, but she left the calendar at the appropriate date, and brought the marked pages to her bed. The rest of the night she spent tracing her father's handwriting and memorizing his words, until she collapsed, exhausted, clutching March 8th - cherish to her chest.

It was these words that kept her strong and got her through the next few days…the wake, the funeral, her mother's weeping. Everyone who came to console her family seemed to comment on her stoicism, her lack of tears, like it was unseemly. They didn't know her, or how she was dealing with this, so she chose to ignore them. This is how she was until April 26th - eternal.

That was the day her father had written a note telling her how much he loved her, how proud he was of her, and that he would always be there for her. That was the first time she broke since her mother broke the news to her, the first time she couldn't handle being in her own skin, the day she slipped out without telling anyone to run around the track, and ended up running into Gendry.

The thud of a car door closing broke Arya out of her moment of nostalgia and jerked her back to the present, causing her to break the tip of her pencil off in the pencil sharpener. She crossed to the window to see who was there, and saw a familiar beat-up green car with a red drivers'-side door - Gendry. Speak of the devil.

For a moment, she grinned and dropped the once again broken pencil to the ground, prepared to dash downstairs to greet him. Then she remembered that she was just as angry at Gendry as she was at Sansa and kicked an errant shoe lying on the floor, sending it skidding under the bed. Still, she couldn't stop from watching as he unfolded himself from the car and began to walk towards the house. The intervening years since they had met had not only given him at least another foot on her, but had replaced his wisps of chin hair to full-blown facial hair. From the looks of it, it had been a day since he last shaved. He still had that annoying habit of touching his chin was he was trying to be impressive, though.

Gendry chose this moment to glace up and caught her eye. "Hi pipsqueak!" he called, raising his hand and grinning. Arya rolled her eyes and slammed the window closed in retaliation, then flopped down on her bed.

As the doorbell rang, she heard Robb lumbering down the stairs to get the door, and reflected that she was angry at him too. At the end of the year, he and Gendry were going to graduate and abandon her to go away to college, just when she _finally_ got into high school. She had been looking forward so much to seeing them between classes and during study hall that she had glossed over the fact that she would be one year too late to achieve this goal. Rationally, she realized that it wasn't Robb's fault that she was born so long after him, but she wasn't in the mood to be rational lately. At least Jon would be there, but it wouldn't be the same.

"Sansa!" she heard her older brother call up the stairs. "If you don't get down here in thirty seconds, we're leaving without you!"

From their adjoining bathroom, Arya heard the familiar sound of her sister's lips popping as she made one last check of her lip gloss, a spritz of body spray, and the fumbling of Sansa's never-ending shoe collection as she searched for matching footwear.

"Sansa!" came her brothers' warning call, and she heard her sister giggling as the bounded down the stairs.

Arya didn't even have to look out the window to see what was happening next. She could tell it all from the noise she could still hear from the closed window. Sansa was grabbing Gendry's arm as she bent down to fasten her too-tall shoes, then push her hair back over her shoulder. Robb called for shotgun, but Sansa smiled that stupid smile she practiced for hours on end at Gendry and said something about "ladies first" and then Gendry was grinning back at her with his blue eyes, and opening the passenger door for her and making some stupid joke and calling her "mi'lady."

Stupid Sansa with her stupid hair and stupid clothes and stupid shoes and girly giggles and the ridiculous way she threw herself at anything that was male.

She hadn't always been that bad, but once she had moved on to high school, she discovered older boys, and a group of girls that introduced her to fashion magazines and let her use their makeup kits. From then, Arya moved from thinking of her sister as a minor annoyance from time to time to finding her mostly intolerable. But it was only this school year that Sansa had moved into the realm of terrible.

After their run-in at the track three years ago, Gendry had started hanging out with Robb, and eventually started dropping by the house. Every time he stopped by for longer than a few minutes, Gendry made an effort to drop by her room and say 'hi' and call her pipsqueak, which never failed to make her smack him and glare. The glare never lasted long as he always managed to make her smile, which, in turn, made his eyes twinkle.

Well, it always made her smile until the start of her eighth grade year and Gendry's senior year. He had made his first trip up to her room in a while, since he had been out of town all summer on vacation, and hadn't visited the Stark home in two months. He was in the middle of giving her advice on his history teacher that year (write a lot on essay tests, even if you said the same thing over and over again in different words, and make sure to answer at least one question every week to stay on his good side) when Sansa burst in through their shared bathroom.

This was becoming a disturbingly normal occurrence, as Sansa now seemed to think that Arya was stealing her clothes. On this particular day, Sansa popped in in a lavender sundress, full makeup, and straightened hair.

"Arya, where is my bl-" Sansa stopped speaking as soon as she saw the older boy leaning in her sisters' doorway. "Gendry, hi!" She gracefully tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled shyly, and smoothed her skirt. "How are you today?" Sansa's voice quieted, became more welcoming.

Arya didn't know what to do. All of a sudden, it was like the beginning of the one school dance she had gone to at the insistence of her mother. Girls making cow eyes at boys, who in turn tried to look all suave and ask the girl to dance, then attempt to move their hands to areas they had never thought of touching before. Luckily, Gendry was older, more mature, and wouldn't play into her sister's game.

Or so she thought.

To her surprise, Gendry stood up straighter and focused on Sansa, completely dropping his conversation with Arya, and asked Sansa how her summer went. Without even realizing what was happening, the two older teenagers had walked away and headed downstairs, leaving Arya gaping behind them.

It was at this point Arya concluded that Sansa was a horrible person, and Gendry wasn't any better. Now, it seemed like any time Robb went out somewhere with Gendry, Sansa came along, with her smiles and her scents and her giggles.

She hated them both. Not only was Gendry abandoning her, Sansa was taking him away from her sooner.

Arya didn't quite understand why she was this upset. It wasn't as if Sansa never acted like this before, or Gendry was never a stupid boy.

As Gendry's car sputtered off , she rolled off the bed and went back to the window. It was too hot out to keep it closed, and there were no other foreseeable awkward visitors today, so it was safe.

Picking up the fallen pencil once more, she removed the broken tip from the sharpener and twisted the pencil in the box, not caring that the shavings fell onto the carpeting. She would pick them up before her mother came in to vacuum next, and it wouldn't matter.

Again, she sat at her desk and looked at the paper in front of her. The essay she was supposed to write was for health class, on CPR. The teacher had arranged for five CPR dummies be sent to the school, and the entire class was divided into five groups, and instructed on how to give CPR. They had to practice breathing into the dummy the right way. Since they were sharing, each group was given a box of scratchy school tissue and a bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the lips of the dummy off after each person was done.

This was the closest Arya had ever come to a kiss, having not been interested in dating, at least none of the boys she went to school with. Frankly, she wasn't impressed with the sensation, and didn't understand the appeal. Besides, no one really dated in middle school…it was mostly passing notes during class, eating lunch next to each other, and talking to each other before class. You couldn't go anywhere without being driven by your parents, you couldn't spend time alone together outside of school, so there was really no reason.

High school, however, appeared to be a different story. Robb and Gendry had their licenses, and Sansa would be trying for hers on her next birthday. They could go places on their own, and were now "mature," or so their parents said.

Her father had always said she was mature for her age, and she felt he would have allowed her to go on a date, if she wanted to, and found someone she wanted to socialize with. She had never thought of anyone her age in this way…or anyone really. Well…maybe one. Sort of. Ish. Arya couldn't really imagine dating Gendry, but she couldn't imagine anyone else. But he was the one guy, outside of her brothers, that didn't make her roll her eyes constantly.

Suddenly, she shook her head, as if to clear it. She was going to go downstairs, get a snack, forget about stupid Sansa and Gendry, and finish her essay.

Several hours later, Arya was restless, popping pieces of pineapple into her mouth as she wandered her room as the radio played softly in the background. She was currently contemplating how the pineapple made her mouth burn as she straightened her room, as her mother had commanded her to do.

There was a soft knock on her door. "Arya," her sister whispered, "can I come in?"

Arya was frustrated she had to deal with this yet again tonight. However, Sansa was asking permission, and Arya had decided she should be nicer to her sister, so called out that she could come in.

A second later, Sansa opened the door enough to slip through, then carefully closed the door behind her.

"I have a huge favor to ask you."

Arya started towards her radio to turn it off, but Sansa gestured her to stay put. "Keep it on - and promise you won't tell mom _anything_ I say."

"Fine," Arya said as she flopped on her bed. Sansa followed suit, collapsing onto her back and holding her hands to her heart rapturously.

"I'm in love!"

Suddenly, all of Arya's good will towards her sister melted away. She wasn't sure why, but it felt wrong for Sansa to be telling her all of this about Gendry, who she saw all the time. She also very much wanted Sansa to leave. However, before she could say anything, Sansa continued.

"I need to you get mom out of the house next Friday so I can bring him over."

"Gendry's here all the time, why do you think mom'll freak if he comes over? Every time he's here, you leave with him."

Sansa rolled her eyes at her younger sister. "Silly, it's not Gendry - he was just helping. I'm talking about Joffrey. Please?" Sansa batted her eyes and made an exaggerated pouty face.

"Sure," Arya said distantly, as the puzzle pieces fell into place, and Sansa started going off on some plot where in which Arya got their mother out of the house by saying she wanted to go clothes shopping.

If Sansa wasn't dating Gendry, and he was just helping Sansa see someone else outside of school…then…

"So…when did you come up with this?" Arya prodded as subtly as she could.

"Well, I had tried asking Robb if he would help, but he wouldn't do anything because he wanted to "protect" me or something. Then I thought that I could try to get Gendry to help convince him…it turns out he was even willing to drive me so Joffrey and I could meet up. _And_ he convinced Robb it was ok. But I'm tired of spending all the time at the coffee shop and the skate park, we just want some time to talk alone. So would you please, please, pretty please with cherries on top help?"

As Ayra thought more on the subject, the plan seemed almost brilliant. She was surprised that Sansa had a part in it.

Feeling lighter than she had since school had started, Arya accepted Sansa's scheme, and managed to get her older sister to unload the dishwasher for the next two months to sweeten the deal.

With her mission accomplished, Sansa skipped off, humming, leaving the door cracked open in her reverie.

It was because of this, when another knock came on her door and a familiar face with bright blue eyes peeked in, she smiled without a second thought.

"How's it going, pipsqueak?"

Without a second thought, Arya dashed across the room, opened the door all the way, and wrapped her arms around Gendry. After a moment's pause, he patted her on the back.

"What's up with you?" he asked, slightly confused, but still smiling.

"I'm just glad you haven't abandoned me." 

"Of course not, Arya," Gendry replied, using her name for a moment of sincerity. "I wouldn't do that."

Arya stepped back and let him step in, where they talked for a few minutes until her mother came by to tell her to go to bed.

Prior to turning off the light, she tore the next page off of her word-a-day calendar. Incredible.

Sansa was incredible.

**Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying this so far. This should set up Arya and Gendry in a slightly better situation, and ends on a happier note. :)**


	3. Phase Three - Bound

-1I have not magically become GRRM since the last chapter. I'm just playing with his creations.

Robb Stark was the most paranoid driver ever.

Prior to actually getting into the vehicle - or unlocking it for his passengers, Robb would walk around the car, checking for anything that might be amiss - a fallen branch, some forgotten toy, a patch of ice, any other slippery substance, a fallen leaf, a dust mote. Anything in the way of his egress from the driveway (or, more embarrassingly, a parking space) was removed with the broom he kept in the trunk. Then, he would walk around and inspect the tires - checking the tread with the penny he always kept in his pocket, making sure they were fully inflated, and that there was nothing on them that could impede traction. After that, he opened the hood, checked the oil and windshield wiper fluid, and inspected for loose wires. Only after this inspection was complete did he allow his passengers to enter the vehicle.

Oh, but the fun didn't end there. Robb made sure he was the appropriate distance from the steering wheel and the pedals, then made sure that the rear view and side view mirrors were perfectly adjusted, even though he was the only one that drove his car. Then, he would fasten his belt, flick the headlights on and off to make sure that the bulbs weren't burned out, check for obstructions by the pedals, and turn and make sure everyone else in the vehicle with him had their safety belts fastened, and have each one in turn tug on the latch to make sure it was holding. Then, and only then, would he place his foot on the break, shift into reverse, put his arm behind the passenger seat, and reverse from the driveway.

Arya frowned as her oldest brother re-adjusted the rear view mirror yet again. Getting into the car with Robb was, in a word, exhausting. She had been late to school more often than not the past three weeks because of him, and it looked like there would be another tardy for her today.

"Come _on_ Robb, I'm going to be late to Algebra again, and you know how Mr. A. feels about tardies!"

"Safety first," her responded seriously, making sure his seat belt was securely fastened. "Better late than never."

Knowing that the ritual wouldn't stop any time soon, Arya emphatically tugged on her own belt to demonstrate that it was fastened and resigned herself to being late again. Even though she was happy to have her brother back for spring break, she was almost more excited to have her mother bring her to school again. At least then she wouldn't be late.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the car went into reverse and, with his hands at ten and two, her older brother started the drive to school.

"So, what did you think of-"

"Shhhh! Robb hissed harshly, keeping his eyes forward on the road. "I have to concentrate!"

For one longing moment, Arya stared at the dial for the radio. She wasn't even sure if it worked - Robb had, as far as she knew, never used it, nor allowed anyone to turn it on. Too much of a distraction. Frowning again, she leaned back in her seat and stared at the ceiling. Usually, on her way to school, she was too tired to care about not being able to make any noise, but she had, for whatever reason, been wide awake this morning.

She hoped her brother would one day relax in his driving, but she thought it may be a long time, if it ever happened. Robb was particularly vigilant from the moment he got behind the wheel - he had finished his drivers' ed course a bare week before their father's accident. It seemed as if he thought if he was the most cautious driver, he could single-handedly avenge Ned's death.

She supposed this was better than being in an accident. However, if she was late one more time this week…

As they reached the block that the school was on (coming to a full stop and looking left, right, and left again) Arya slowly reached for her bag, so she could bolt out the minute the car stopped, and hopefully make it through the door of the classroom before the bell. The moment the car stopped (she knew Robb would never forgive her if she opened the door while the car was still even slightly in motion) she unfastened her belt and opened the door in one movement, then ran as fast as she could.

"See you after school!" she heard Robb shout behind her, getting out to start his pre-driving ritual once again.

After bursting through the doors, Arya saw there were still a few stragglers in the hallways. If she could just make it through down the hallway and around the corner in the next thirty seconds, she may just pull it off.

Luck was on her side, and she was able to slip through the door right before Mr. A. shut it.

"Cutting it a little close today, aren't we, Miss Stark?"

Arya simply grinned at him and slipped into her seat in the back of the room. She reached into her bag to pull out her book.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath.

Her table-partner, Len, subtly pushed his book to the center of the table, so that she could use it too.

" Thanks," she whispered at him, pulling out her notebook and pencil.

After a few minutes of lecturing and answering questions, Mr. A turned around and started writing on the board, explaining what they would be learning today. Idly, she began to copy down the formula on the board, when she felt the tap of a notebook on her elbow. Looking down, she saw Len had written something on the paper, with a suspicious lack of numbers.

_Late again?_

_Only almost._

_Making a habit of this? Mr. A. won't like that…_

Arya glanced sideways at him, then quickly started writing in her own notebook as the algebra teacher glanced her way. Once it was safe to stop copying down information from the board, she scribbled on the page again.

_Not now. He'll catch us._

Len smiled, flipped to a new page in his notebook, and happily started copying down their new equations.

All Arya could think was "weirdo" as she embellished her notes. He was always grinning at her and giving her weird looks. She just hoped he wasn't planning anything to get her into more trouble with Mr. A. than she already was, and resigned herself to learning about functions.

Arya darted between groups of gossiping students and people that were walking just too f-ing slowly. She had to get away and get to Robb's car before he caught up with her.

'_What was he thinking?_' she thought to herself, clutching her books and binder to her chest. If she could just get to the car and somehow convince Robb that he could skip his pre-drive ritual _just this once_ she could get away and have some time to deal with this.

She was focusing so much on locating her brother's bright blue car that she ended up walking past her ride.

"Hey pipsqueak…" said a familiar male voice behind her.

"Gendry?" She spun around, almost dropping her armful of school supplies in the process to verify it was him.

Sure enough, there he was, leaning against a car with a mis-matched door. His hair was spiky instead of flat, he had some scruff on his face instead of being clean shaven, but it was him.

Quickly she rushed toward him, and he folded one arm around her shoulders and giving her a quick squeeze. She responded by punching him in the arm ("That's for calling me pipsqueak!") then hugged him back.

"I thought you forgot about me," he fake-pouted, opening the back door so she could stow her things there. Grinning from ear to ear, she threw her things in back, not caring if everything spilled out.

"Why're you here instead of Robb?"

"Well, he gave me a call about an hour ago an pretty much begged me to swing by to get you -"

"Shit," Arya said urgently, for what must have been the tenth time that day. "We have to go. Now."

"Wha?" Gendry cocked his head to the side in askance.

"I'll let you know, but we have to get out of here."

"As mi'lady commands." With this, he grabbed his keys from his pocket, tossed them to his other hand with a jingle, and ducked to the other side of the car.

Arya flushed as she hastily got in the car, slamming the door behind her. In a flash, Gendry pulled away from the curb, and as she glanced out the window, she saw Len's figure retreating in the distance. With relief she relaxed in her seat.

"Seat belt," Gendry reminded her as he glanced her way.

Their eyes met. "Robb," they said in unison, then laughed.

Even now, Robb's insanity still got to them.

"Now what," he began, reaching over to turn off the radio, "was that all about?"

"Um…nothing." Arya pointedly looked out the window, ignoring his gaze.

"Arya…" he said, looking at her and cocking his eyebrow. With his left hand he rolled down the window and hung his arm on the bottom of the window frame, driving with this other hand.

"It's just weird and stupid and…blagh!"

"I'm gonna need a little more to go off of."

"Promise you won't tell?"

"Promise." He even moved his arm from its resting place to draw a small x over his heart. Arya stared at his finger as it made the crossing motion across his chest. He must have started working out…

Feeling the tips of her ears turn warm, she rolled down the window a bit, twirling the knob absent-mindedly.

"When Party B promises to keep a secret, that's usually a sign for Party A to tell said secret," he said, winking at her.

"I…Len, he…um…I…"

"Great story, and then what happened?" Gendry grinned at her sudden inability to speak.

"Igotaskedout."

"One more time, slower?"

With a pained expressed on her face, she breathed deep and paused. Her companion just sat there, hair moving slightly in the breeze of the open windows, with a patient smile on his face, and no trace of the telltale signs of mocking that would follow if she even breathed a word of this to one of her brothers.

"Len asked me on a date."

Arya looked at her lap and started fidgeting with her hands. For some reason, telling Gendry about this felt strange.

Telling someone else would be even stranger.

Gendry would have snickered at this point, but stopped because of the very apparent swell of awkward that was rising from the girl in his passenger seat. Instead, he said, "I take it this was…unexpected?"

"Very."

"So what did you say?"

"Well…I…nothing, really. I kinda…ran away. And then when he tried to catch up with me outside, we kind of…drove away."

Gendry laughed as he imagined what this Len kid would think of him as they pulled to a stop at the lights. "So I'm the other guy, then?"

Arya punched him again, on the shoulder. "Gendry!"

He laughed again. "Do you like him?"

"He helps me with math sometimes. And…sometimes we talk during lunch."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Dating is stupid! There's nothing to do! Sansa talks about it like it's the greatest thing ever, but all she ever does is stare all googly-eyed at some guy and talk about nothing. Nothing important or useful ever happens, and it just seems like a waste of time."

As he stopped at the next intersection, Gendry nodded as if making a sudden decision and abruptly made a right-hand turn.

"What are you doing?" Arya asked, nervously.

"I get the feeling you don't want to go home and face Sansa right now…or your brothers…or your mother."

"Yeah," she mumbled into her chest.

"So…smoothie?"

"Yes please!"

"Good," Gendry replied as he pulled into the parking lot of the small café/bakery that was Arya's favorite.

It took a lot of willpower for Arya not to run straight to the counter and order. She was going to have an adult discussion with Gendry, and adults did not run and bounce up and down excitedly, they walked.

Arya reached into her pocked and retrieved a five dollar bill, extending it to Gendry after he turned off the car. He waved it off, saying it was his treat, and to go find a good table.

"Just remember -"

"Extra mango, no raspberry, right?" he called over his shoulder, winking once again. She always ordered the same smoothie every time she came in.

Arya headed to the patio, and was pleased and surprised to see the best table was vacant - it was in the corner and under a huge maple tree, which provided shade to the better part of the table. Better luck, no one had been there lately, so she didn't have to stare at someone's half-eaten Danish and wonder why they would leave it behind when you had to literally walk past a garbage can to get out of the patio.

A few minutes later, Gendry emerged from the shop with two to-go beverages in his hand. As he sat down, he took a sip from the straw from the cup in his left hand.

"Hey!"Arya exclaimed, punching him as soon as she had retrieved her prize from his hand. "That's mine!"

"Sometimes, I really wish I hadn't taught you how to punch," he mused, rubbing the spot where she had punched him twice in the last twenty minutes. "You're going to leave bruises, and then what will people think?"

"They'll think that you run into a lot of doors."

"I'm not that clumsy."

"Well, you should start to be - it'll be such a great explanation for when I beat you up!" She smiled mischievously at him, and took a sip.

Gendry leaned in close and lowered his voice, whispering into her ear, "we'll see about that."

She shivered.

"Cold?" 

"Um…no. No, I'm fine."

Then, the door burst open, and in surged a group of giggling high school girls. Wordlessly, they both picked up their respective drinks and walked away, leaving the now crowded patio and walking together to the park.

After they crossed the street that led to the park, Gendry started the conversation again.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," he said off-handedly, taking a swig of his latte as they began to walk the trail.

"What was?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Someone asking you out."

"No, it wasn't."

"It was. I'm just surprised it took this long."

She deliberately walked into him and called him a liar.

Then, because she didn't know what else to do, she grabbed his drink and took a sip. Then, because she had forgotten there was coffee, she almost spit it back out.

"How do you drink this stuff?" she asked, sputtering, and taking a big swallow of her smoothie to erase the taste from her mouth."

"Practice…and way too many late nights."

After a few minutes of idle chatter about late night study sessions, Gendry motioned to a park bench overlooking the water. "Wanna sit?"

As she nodded her assent he flopped back on the green bench and casually laid his arm along the back. Arya climbed on as well, crossing her legs and facing him, clutching her smoothie in her hands.

"So, what are you going to do about this guy?" he asked, lifting his own beverage up to take a drink, getting back to the matter at hand.

She gnawed on the straw for a minute.

"Not sure…I've never been in this situation before, so I don't know the protocol." Exasperated, she gritted her teeth. "Stupid Len, making things all complicated."

"I think you're overreacting just a bit. Dating isn't the big chore you're making it out to be. It can be fun!"

He chuckled at the face she made. "Seriously, just listen. A date is two people that enjoy each others' company, getting to know each other better. Nothing more than that. Googly eyes are optional."

"I don't enjoy making googly-eyes."

"Well, I'm sure he doesn't either. Tell me - do you have fun talking to him?"

"…I guess."

"Then, if you enjoy spending time with this guy, give it a shot. Worst that can happen is you're a little awkward, then things just go back to normal. You can decide what happens, how far it goes, and stop it if you're not comfortable. You're the girl, you're in control."

She frowned. "What if he wouldn't let it go?"

"Then let me know, and I'll make sure he understands." Reaching over, he tilted up her head with his fingers. "Believe me. I know you. No one's going to do anything to you that you don't want to happen."

A smile slowly spread across her face.

"Well, if I'm in control, then I want to be done with this. I just need to think it over on my own for a while."

"Do you want to go home?"

"Not yet." Arya uncrossed her legs and scooted closer to him on the bench. "I mean, if you don't have anything better to do."

"I'm wide open."

She grinned. "Remember when you told me you would teach me to skip rocks?"

"Your wish is my command."

Later that afternoon, the sat under an oak tree, tossing acorns into the river, since they had run out of rocks. A duck quacked angrily as one of the nuts landed too close to him.

"Child geniuses sent to space to save the world," Arya said triumphantly.

"Hmm…that's a tough one," Gendry pondered, tossing an acorn in his hand.

She grinned, happy she had stumped him again. "Give up?"

Arya decided that his response of chucking the acorn at her was affirmative.

"It's Ender's Game."

"That sounds pretty ridiculous."

"You should read it -trust me."

The last twenty minutes had been spent in a showdown of wits - they took turns giving the most abstract, yet truthful description of a book, and seeing if the other could crack it. Arya initially said that Gendry had an unfair advantage, since he had a year of college on her, as well as three more years of high school, but he pointed out that he didn't remember any English classes his junior year, and had missed his fair share of classes this semester, and declared it even.

Suddenly, he turned his wrist to look at his watch.

"I should be getting you home, pipsqueak. Robb's probably worried that I drove us off of a cliff by now."

Gendry was prepared for her reaction now, since he wasn't driving or carrying liquids, and was able to stop her inevitable punch to the arm with his hand. Closing his fingers over her fist, he helped her up from the ground and they began to walk back on the path to his car.

As they pulled into her driveway, Arya was almost in tears from laughing at Gendry's car dancing. It mainly consisted of overly-expressive lip-syncing and stupid hand gestures involving the steering wheel, but it was, in Arya's mind, the funniest thing ever.

Wiping the mirthful tears from her face, Arya cheerfully thanked Gendry for the wonderful afternoon and for being her ride, reaching for the door handle.

Suddenly, Gendry, put a hand on her arm. "Wait a minute," he said, turning off the car.

Puzzled, she moved her hand from the door back to her lap.

"I was serious before, when I said someone was bound to ask you out soon. You're smart, and funny, and you're beautiful. The fact that it took until now for this to happen is astounding. This guy is just the first one that got up the courage to ask you out, there are plenty more out there. Just remember that."

Arya sat in stunned silence for a moment.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"No…it's all true. Trust me."

After a few moments passed, Gendry realized that the girl in his car didn't know what to say from here. "You should get inside, I'm sure someone is wondering where you are, pipsqueak!"

Arya glared thoughtfully at him, and exited the car. After she had picked up her bag and books, she turned and leaned through the window.

"Since I'm apparently grown-up enough to start dating, would you stop calling me pipsqueak?"

He smiled. "Fair enough - consider it a thing of the past."

"Good!" Arya smiled in triumph, and began to turn.

"One last thing -" Arya paused and glanced back as he turned the key in the ignition. "-hope you enjoyed our date."

Laughing at the expression on her face, Gendry pulled into reverse and drove away. "See you soon!" he called through the still-open window as he drove away.

Arya did not have time to contemplate this turn of events quite yet, as someone in her house would have noticed her late return. This would have to wait until she was safe in her room for the night.

As she opened the front door, she thought her escape upstairs may take longer than she had anticipated. Robb was sitting at the kitchen table, looking shaken, and staring at a half-filled glass of water. Her mother was on the phone, speaking in a serious voice.

"Robb," Arya sat down quickly next to her oldest brother, dropping her school things on the ground. "What's going on?"

It seemed like a bad sign when he gave no response, and didn't seem to notice her presence.

"Mmmhmm…yes. Thank you. Goodbye."

Arya interjected as soon as her mother set down the telephone. "Mom, what's going on?"

"Your brother," Catelyn said, tousling her eldest's hair, "got into a bit of a car accident."

"WHAT? Robb's the most careful driver ever, that could never happen!"

"I was driving in front of the entrance to the grocery store…" Robb broke from his trance at this point, and spoke in a quiet voice. "The person that was driving out wasn't paying attention, and hit me. I didn't even see it coming."

"Luckily," Catelyn added, "No one was hurt, and it was only a little dent in the passenger side. It'll be all fixed in two days, and you'll have it back in time to get back to school."

Robb nodded slowly.

Comforted that her brother was fine, Arya plotted her escape. "I have lots of homework to do, so I'm going to head upstairs. Let me know when dinner is ready!"

She ran off with her bag without giving her mother a chance to respond.

Fifteen seconds later her door was closed, and she was alone.

Slowly, she laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

A date. Gendry had called it a date. But it hadn't been anything like Sansa always talked about. They had some tasty drinks and hung out at the park and talked. That was just hanging out, not a date.

'_But he bought your drink, that's date-ish,' her brain interjected oh-so helpfully._

'_We talked about my guy troubles, as it were. You don't do that on a date.'_

Irritated, she sat up, and stopped herself from arguing with herself in her mind. That was just a little too weird.

Then, she remembered what Gendry had said earlier about a date. "Two people that enjoy each others' company, getting to know each other better."

If that was the definition of a date, then…that did, technically, define what their afternoon had been.

She tried to imagine doing the same thing with Len. Talking to him about this family, what he did for fun, what they had in common.

She couldn't.

Talking with Gendry was one thing, but Len was another story entirely. Except for math, they didn't have much to talk about. And, despite his best attempts, he never managed to make her laugh.

Unlike Gendry.

The sudden realization dropped like a rock in her stomach. All she wanted to do was talk to hang out with Gendry outside of school. Just Gendry. Like…in a dating way.

"Shit," she said again, curling into a fetal position on the bed.

Why did she have to get a crush on Gendry?

The next morning, both Robb and Arya were subdued. Robb had tried to convince their mother to bring Arya to school, but she had insisted he get back on the horse, so to speak. And so here they were.

Adjusting her bag over her shoulder, Arya prepared herself for Robb's pre-driving ritual, expecting it to be several minutes longer in light of his recent accident. To her surprise, without walking around the car, he opened the door and got it, and looked at her in askance as she gaped at him.

"Are you getting in?"

Slowly, she opened the door and sat down, fastening her belt, but prepared to unbuckle and run if it turned out her brother had been body snatched.

"Buckled in?" he asked, turning the key in the ignition. As she nodded, he pulled into reverse, checked both ways, and backed out of the driveway.

After a lock of silence, her older brother began to explain. "I realized that, no matter how much I prepare, something else can always happen. I was being too paranoid, and that won't change anything."

Arya smiled to show she understood, and reached out to try out the radio.

Robb stuck out his hand to stop hers. "Not yet."

Rolling her eyes, she sat back in the seat, deciding to be content with the progress made so far. Maybe one day her brother would be normal.

Now, as long as he didn't get in another accident and could get her to and from school until spring break was over, and Gendry wouldn't stop by to see her…she may just survive this visit from the college-aged men in her life, and deal with her awkward feelings before they came back next.

No problem with that.

None at all.

The butterflies in her stomach begged to differ.

**Author's Note: I struggled a lot with this chapter, walking the line between (hopefully) cute and creepy-college-guy-hitting-on-a-high-school-freshm an territory. **

**Thank you to all my reviewers - I really appreciate your support. It makes it even more fun to write knowing that someone is waiting for the next installment!**

**Things should be picking up from here for these two…in the next installment, Arya decides to take things into her own hands….**


	4. Phase Four - Haven

**Note: Still not mine, in case you were wondering.**

XXXXX-XXXXX

Catelyn Stark was packing far too much in her youngest daughter's car.

"Now, make sure you give this box to Robb when you see him. And then this one goes to Sansa. Do you want me to label them? I'll get a marker." Arya's mother hurried off to the house to get a marker, leaving her daughter tapping her foot impatiently as she stood next to the open car door.

A moment later, she bustled back out, holding not one but two permanent markers. Biting her lower lip, she carefully wrote the appropriate names (color-coded, of course) on the boxes meant for her two oldest children.

"You have the directions, Arya?" Arya raised the pages in her hand in answer.

"I also have the emergency road kit, the detailed map you bought for me when I got my car, snacks for the road, a list of emergency numbers, the page with Robb's and Sansa's addresses, forty dollars in cash, clothes for the week, my sleeping bag, all the other stuff you bought for Sansa and Robb, a book, my school bag, and a partridge in a pear tree."

"What about the phone card? I want you to call me as soon as you get there."

Her mother apparently did not understand exactly how crazy she was.

"Yes, Mom, I have it right here with my driver's license and the insurance card."

"Are you sure you're alright with getting there and back?" Catelyn fretted, pulling her braid over her shoulder. "I can arrange to-"

"I'm fine. I can make it two hours to the school, stay for a few days with Sansa, then come back with Sansa. It's not rocket science."

Pursing her lips together as if to keep from speaking something else or crying, Catelyn threw her arms about her daughter.

"Be safe," she whispered into her hair, then, after one final squeeze, she let her daughter go.

"I'll see you in a few days, Mom," Arya smiled and got into the car. "I'll be just fine."

With a wave, she backed out of the driveway before her mother remembered "just one more thing" she should bring. She also made a mental note to ask Robb if their mother had been that protective when he first went off to college.

Turning on the radio, she pulled onto the freeway and grinned. Even though she wasn't eagerly anticipating two hours in the car with Sansa on the way back home, she was happy to be able to see her sister again. Sansa never had an interest in driving, preferring to be chauffeured around. This was fine, as she and Robb ended up at the same school after graduation, so she could just ride along with him.

This year, Robb had to work at his internship over the holiday, so he wasn't coming home the same time as Sansa. Catelyn fretted about this, because she had to work, and she wasn't sure how her daughter was getting home. Arya volunteered (and begged, coerced, and pleaded) for the job, and, with many doubts, she was finally allowed to go.

XXXXXXXXXX

Two and a half hours later, Arya was regretfully glad her mother had insisted on getting detailed map for her car. It had come in handy when road construction had put her on a maze of a detour on a road that somehow – according to the signs – went north, west, and south at the same time. Half an hour late, she reached her destination and pulled into the parking lot of a run-down movie theater that was across the street from campus.

Within seconds, a familiar red-haired figure was tapping on her window.

"Where have you been? I've been reading the posters for these movies over and over, and trying to avoid being stared at by the creepy guys buying beer at eleven in the morning." Sansa expressed her grievances as she opened Arya's door for her.

"I'm sorry, they moved the road I was supposed to take, so I had to backtrack to get here."

Sansa softened and smiled, stepping back to allow her sister to get out and stretch her legs. "I'm glad you're here...let's find you a phone."

"Thanks," Arya said gratefully, pulling the phone card out of her pocket.

Ten minutes later, Arya was draped over the pay phone, looking haggard. "Yes, Mom. I know. I did. Ye-...yes. Mmm-hmm. Right. I'll call you if anything happens. Yes, I'll give Sansa the box. Robb will get his later today. Oh, wow, Sansa just said the place we're going is on the other side of town, we have to get started now or we'll be late. OK. Yes...yes...bye."

Sansa smirked. "She was even worse when I first moved in. Come on, let's go back to my dorm so you can unload your stuff." As an afterthought, she quickly hugged her sister as they made their way back to the car.

She she got into the passenger seat, she turned around to look at the jam-packed backseat, and groaned when she saw the large moving box with her name on it.

"What did she send this time?"

"I'm not sure," the younger sister replied. "Just get me there, and we can investigate."

After several minutes , they had lugged everything Catelyn had sent along for her girls up to Sansa's room on the fourth floor, and promptly dropped everything in a pile on the ground.

"You get to sleep on the futon – it's really comfy," Sansa said over her shoulder as she dragged the large box to the middle of the room and grabbed a pair of scissors from her desk drawer. "And Margaery's almost never here, so you don't' have to worry about her."

With relish Sansa cut open the packing tape on her box and revealed the contents.

"Economy box of tampons...ew, they're generic brand. Didn't she learn from last time? Socks...a sewing kit...two boxes of crackers...ooh – gift card for groceries...three packs of pens...why did she give me a pillowcase?"

Stepping over the miscellaneous items her sister had begun to throw around the room, Arya sank down on the futon under her sister's loft. It was surprisingly comfortable, much better than she had expected.

"What in the world..." Sansa pondered out loud, holding up a thin plastic utensil with a small hoop, and a small triangular protrusion on the other side.

"I think it's for oranges," Arya replied. "She just discovered it, so she's been making various orange desserts for the past month. Oh, yeah, there's also a bag of oranges in the trunk for you. We should take them out before they roast and make my car smell like overripe citrus."

"We can grab it on our way to meet Robb," the redhead mused, tossing the strange device for oranges behind her.

"Do you want to be the weirdo carrying the bag of oranges into a restaurant?"

"No, I want to give them to Robb...I hate oranges."

Arya snorted and continued to watch in amusement as Sansa continued to remove items from the enormous box. Maybe by the time Rickon went to college, she would figure out what her children actually needed.

Suddenly, the door burst open and girl with long brown hair entered the room.

"Hi, roomie!" She called, tossing a book onto her desk.

"Hi Margarey," Sansa said a little too brightly.

Without invitation or asking who the short-haired girl was that was sitting on their futon, the interloper began to chatter on about her day as she threw various pieces of clothing into a duffel bag. It took all of Arya's self-control to not burst out laughing at the tight expression on her sister's face.

As the bubbly girl grabbed a pair of shoes, she tripped over the box of tampons her roommate had tossed to the side. "Remember in the beginning of the year, that big box of these that popped up in the bathroom? I didn't know you used these, I thought you used-"

"They're from my mom," Sansa said, shoving the offending box under the futon and averting her eyes.

After a few more minutes idle chatter, Margarey grabbed a few bags and left just as suddenly as she had appeared, calling "see you next week, roomie!" over her shoulder.

Once the other girls' footsteps had disappeared down the hallway, Sansa looked up at her sister. "I hate her so much.

All Arya could do was collapse onto the futon in a fit of laughter at the expression on her face. Soon enough, she joined her sister's insane laughter, narrowly avoiding crushing the box of Kleenex her mother had also sent.

XXXXX-XXXXX

"Thank you, big brother!" Sansa said sweetly, grinning up at Robb and clutching his arm.

"I'm not made out of money, sister of mine, so don't go looking for any more handouts," he chuckled, playfully shoving his sister away. "It's your turn next time."

Sansa pouted, then asked, "are you sure you can't come tonight?"

"Afraid not, Sansa. I have to be up early tomorrow, and I need to put in some work on that chemistry project before then. You girls will just have to hang out without me."

"Maybe I could drop by tomorrow," Arya asked, trying to wheedle her older brother into spending more time with her. "I still haven't seen your new place yet!"

Robb was inordinately proud of the house he was renting with some of his friends. Moving out of the dorms, he said, was the greatest feeling ever. And, better yet, he didn't have to eat in the dining hall anymore, a fact that he taunted Sansa with regularly, if their argument over lunch was any indication.

"Aah...no. You're not ready to spend any time in a college house with six guys."

"What's so bad about it?"

"Let's just say...mom would kill me if I let you in there right now."

"Robb...come on! Between you and Gendry, I'm pretty sure I can handle it." Though not nearly as practiced as her sister, Arya tried to charm her brother into agreeing.

"Actually," Robb responded, trying to change the subject, "Gendry doesn't live with me...he got his own place over the summer."

"Really? Why? Where? When? I haven't heard from him in a while..."

"He just did...haven't seen him around lately. Anyhow, Sansa, you said Mom sent along something for me?"

"It's an entire care package...giant moving box and all. But about Gendry-"

"Oh boy..." Robb interrupted quickly, "I wonder how many toothbrushes she gave me this time." He then started walking towards Arya's car, talking to his sisters about the other weird things their mother had thought he would need while away from home.

"And Mom sent some oranges for you too," Sansa added, grinning at her sister.

"She literally had some shipped to me last week – does she think I'm on an orange juice diet or something?"

"I guess so," Sansa said, triumphantly pushing the bag into his arms.

Arya puzzled on her brother's strange behavior, and decided to figure out why in one way or another.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Later that night, after they had turned out the lights for the night, Sansa jumped out of bed, turned on her desk light, and pulled out her syllabus for her Astronomy class.

"Oh no."

"What?" Arya rolled over to look at her sister.

"My test tomorrow."

"I know, you told me, you'll be gone for an hour, and then we'll go see a movie."

"Um," Sansa bit her lip and looked nervously at her sister. "So, I kind of mixed up my dates..."

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, she sat up and turned fully to her sister.

"It turns out that the major test with the practical lab is tomorrow, and not next month."

"Please define how different this is from the test you were expecting."

"Well..." Sansa chewed on a lock of her hair, avoiding Arya's gaze. "There's the written portion...then we have to do a three hour lab on the telescope...and then we have to use the information we learned in a 'practical exam' in the observatory."

"And how long is this going to be?"

"I go in at four...and I should be out by nine?"

"If I would have known this, I wouldn't have planned to come up so early."

"I know," Sansa sighed, laying down the paper she was holding. "But it's not my fault!"

"The information is literally in the packet you have had since the first class, and have had available to you since then."

"Arya," her sister began, a pleading tone in her voice.

"I'm going to bed. I'll figure out something to do tomorrow."

She signed as Sansa turned off the light. Tomorrow night was going to be a long day.

XXXXX-XXXXX

After Sansa "treated" Arya to lunch in the dining center, she promised to make the evening up to her. Arya was doubtful that she would remember this later on, but decided to let it go. She should have really expected this of her sister. This was just how she was.

The two girls took a walk around campus and paused to watch a group of people playing Frisbee golf. While discussing the finer points of not understanding the sport, Sansa's roommate, Margarey bounced up behind them.

"Hi roomie!" she declared, waving to the both of them, then turned to Arya directly. "Since Sansa has her test tonight, I thought I'd hang out with you tonight. Omigosh, we can paint our nails, and I can show you my photo collages from my trip to Arabia, and I'll invite some of the girls over so we can play truth or dare, and then tell scary stories! My father also bought me this-"

Arya held up her hand as if to stave off the volcano of words spewing forth. "Sorry, I've got plans."

"Ooooh, that's so sad!" she pouted prettily. "Well, the next time you come to visit, I'll make sure I can be around again. It'll be so much fun!" Waving cheerfully, she skipped off again, calling to another friend she saw across the street.

"But I thought you were just going to hang out in the room?"

"I was, until Miss Popular-Pants volunteered to spend the night with me..I think I understand why you can't stand her."

"So...what're you going to do? If you want, I can lend you my student id so you can go hang out somewhere tonight." Sansa winced, knowing it was a feeble offer in light of the situation.

"Yeah, that'd be nice," she replied, to her sister's surprise. "Kind of get the college experience."

Pleased that she had given a viable option to her sister for the evening, she pulled her sister along to the dorm. "Now, let me tell you a few places you can go..."

XXXXX-XXXXX

She had been perplexed by Robb's cagey behavior about Gendry over lunch, and concerned that she had heard nothing from him in months, so decided to use her free time this evening to investigate.

Since their "date" two years prior, Arya and Gendry hadn't seen each other much, though they had kept in touch. He had left her a note when he went back to school with his phone number, letting her know that if she had any other problems, she could talk to him. Since the note was bereft of the word "pipsqueak" she decided it was a serious offer.

For months, she had had romantic daydreams that she denied having afterwords of the conversations they could have. But she couldn't think of any topics that didn't sound stupid, and that was the last thing she wanted.

So, she set the note aside, folded in a small box she kept at the back of her desk drawer, and put it out of her mind. Well she tried to, at least. The fantasy daydreams she had were driving her crazy, and had to stop. Arya threw herself into her schoolwork – all that did was make her head of the class, but she still kept busy enough to think. She thought of joining basketball, but dismissed it just as quickly.

Then, she had tried dating. Quickly she figured out that a date wasn't simply two people hanging out because they enjoyed each others' company – that was something he had made up to get her feeling better about the whole situation with Len. Dating was more like she originally imagined – awkward conversation, attempts at googly-eyes, and an unpleasant amount of time trying to stop the guy from grabbing her boob. It wasn't her ideal way to spend an evening, but it did keep her sufficiently on her toes to start to forget.

And then, one day after a particularly rough day, she came home and, without realizing it, dialed the number she had memorized long ago. There was only one person she wanted to talk to, and she didn't care how awkward it may be, because he was the only one that could cheer her up.

An unfamiliar voice answered, and Arya was paralyzed with uncertainly for a moment, but pressed on and asked for Gendry. Luckily the voice on the other end of the line was just his roommate, who said "some chick's calling for you" and dropped the phone on the desk.

The first word she heard him say in months was a husky "hey."

"Hey yourself," she had replied, pointedly ignoring the butterflies in her stomach.

"...Arya?" He asked, in his normal voice.

'_Oh...there's a girl he was expecting to call...not me_.'

She steeled herself. '_It's not going to happen. Just get over it. Now, you called him for a reason, just go with that.'_

"Yeah, it's me. You said that if I had a problem, I could come to you..."

"I'm all ears."

As she heard the distant sound of a video game booting up in the background, she unleashed her woes, which somehow didn't seem as bad now. Soon, he had her smiling again, and they continued to talk about school, their plans for the future, and what was the best movie that had come out that year.

Their calls had continued with semi-regularity, with Gendry phoning in to her just as much as she did to him. Their conversations kept to a friendly tone, but Arya couldn't help herself from hoping that something would happen, his voice would drop and sound like it had when she had called for the first time...but it never happened, and she didn't know the best way to broach the topic.

And so it had gone, until the start of this year of school. The voice that answered the phone this time was not the now-familiar roommate, but another male voice, saying that he was a freshman, so didn't know who had lived there before. She had tried her brothers, but Robb had yielded no information , and Jon wasn't that close with Gendry, so she had no way of finding him. But now that she was in the same town, she was going to find out why.

Arya sat in her car contemplating. None of the options she could think of would lead her to Gendry, and right now her best option was to walk the streets calling his name. Other than being just a generally weird thing to do, she thought it sent the wrong message. Finally, she realized there was only one option – Robb. She was, for once, grateful for her mothers' insane preparation, and pulled out the sheet with her brother's address.

As she pulled into the driveway a few minutes later, she began to wonder why Robb had said she couldn't come over. The rented house actually looked pretty good – the yard was mowed, and there were some decently-trimmed shrubs in front. She knocked on the door, and was almost driven back by the music pounding from inside. There didn't seem to be anything that would cause him to essentially forbid her to come over.

"Hey there...what can I do you?" The guy that answered the door as she knocked was shirtless, had a bottle of beer in hand, and was dangling a cigarette from his lip.

"I'm looking for Robb Stark," Arya said confidently, pointedly looking at his eyes instead of his bare chest.

This stranger, however, did not appear to share the same social norms that she had grown up with, and lowered his gaze to her chest. She also noted that there was a beer pong game in play in the back room, and what appeared to be a framed poster of two girls making out...

"What'do you want with him?" he asked, leaning in towards her, grinning. "I'm sure I could show you a better time."

Before Arya could begin to speak, one of the guys in the back room turned to see what was going on at the front door.

"Arya?"

"Hi, Robb."

"Ed, back off, that's my little sister!" her brother said, striding forward. "Arya, come with me."

Ignoring shouts of protest from the game he left behind, he guided her up a set of dim stairs to what had to be his room.

"What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come."

"So, is this why you told me I shouldn't come?" she mused, looking around, "because I'm pretty sure Mom wouldn't like to hear about all of this..."

Robb paled at this, even though he knew his mother technically couldn't do anything to him, since he was of age. She still supported a good deal of his college education, and if she didn't approve of his living conditions...things could considerably more difficult for him.

"What do you want, in return for not telling Mom?"

"I want to see Gendry," she said simply, folding her arms.

A moment of slightly panicky indecision crossed Robb's face. It appeared that fear of his mother trumped whatever he had been trying to avoid telling her about Gendry, and he scribbled something down on the back of a receipt that was on his dresser.

"Here's the address. Just go back to the main road, turn at the gas station, then go for three blocks. The apartment is on the right side, third floor."

"Thank you, big brother!" Arya said, imitating Sansa's tone the previous day. "I'll consider us even for now. Just make sure you roommate doesn't hit on me again when I leave."

Knowing she had him in a vulnerable position, Robb nodded silently and led her to the front door, keeping the shirtless roommate away with a glare.

Grinning at him from the stoop, Arya got in one last comment. "Oh, one last thing – Mom wants to come up and visit you and see you first place for herself. She said to give her a call next week to work it out."

Mission accomplished, she happily walked back to her car with the crumpled receipt in her hand. This was turning out easier than she thought.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Climbing the stairs of the run-down apartment, she considered what to say when Gendry opened the door. Her options ran from accusations to jumping into his arms. Either of the two extremes, she felt would not be a good starting option. Before she knew it, she was on the third floor, and found the door marked 'Q.' She couldn't tell what color it was, but she could tell the the paint was peeling from the hallway's walls in the dim overhead lighting.

She knocked on the door. A deep sigh emitted from within, then some shuffling steps as the occupant came to the door. After some fumbling with what sounded like a deadbolt the door opened.

And there he was. After all this time, he was just behind this door with the tarnished 'Q.' His face, initially bleary-eyed, changed quickly to surprise, the briefest instant of anger and back to surprise. He was wearing wrinkled pajama pants and a form-fitting white t-shirt and...that was ok with her. In what may have been the least subtle manner possible, he pulled the door close to his body, blocking off the view of the inside.

"Arya" he said wonderingly, as if she was a mirage.

None of the hellos she had imagined was quite like this. He seemed more closed off than she had ever seen him before, and didn't know how to go from here.

Trying to diffuse the situation, she quickly decided, was the best way to proceed.

"Is that how you're going to treat your favorite person in the world, by leaving her out in the hallway?"

She had also decided to leave no room for her not gaining entrance to the apartment.

"Ah..." he said under his breath, raking his hand through his hair.

Arya's knees started to feel traitorously weak.

"Gimme just a minute." He pulled the door almost all the way shut, and heard frantic rustling from within, and the clinking of plates and glasses being pushed into a sink.

At the time when she was growing almost too impatient to wait outside the door cracked open again.

"Um...you can come in. If you want," he said quietly, pulling open the door again. He had quickly changed into jeans and a different t-shirt, apparently trying to give himself some more dignity. She could see where he had tossed his previous outfit, as the articles of clothing were sticking out from under the futon, but chose to ignore that, since he had so obviously tried to hide it.

"What can I do for you?" he asked politely, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"I want you," she replied, folding her arms, "to tell me why you dropped off the face of the planet, why my brother won't talk about you, and why you won't look me in the eye!"

"Something to drink?" He said feebly, avoiding the subject."

"No, Gendry, I do not want anything to drink. I do not want a snack. I want to talk to you and find out why you've been ignoring me."

He looked at her directly for the first time, and gray eyes met blue. "I wasn't trying to."

"Come on, sit down with me." Arya grabbed his arm and headed towards the futon.

Slowly he followed, and sat awkwardly next to her.

After a few moments of silence passed, she knew she had to take charge of the situation.

"You know...you can tell me anything. God knows I've done that to you. Just tell me what's going on."

He signed and glanced at her, and seemed to realize she wasn't going to give up.

"I dropped out of school."

"OK, and?"

"And?" Gendry turned to her, confused. "Isn't it 'Gendry, what are you doing with your life?' 'Gendry, why did you do something so stupid?' 'Gendry, what were you thinking?'"

"Well, I know you wouldn't have made this big of a decision without thinking about it and deciding it was for the best. And I know you wouldn't ignore me over one event, so there has to be more," she finished matter-of-factly.

"Oh, you mean how my parents cut me off when I told them about school, so I'm working at a gas station for rent money? Or how I don't talk to anyone anymore because I'm not in college, so we don't have anything in common? Is that what you're looking for?"

"Gendry," Arya began, choosing to ignore the anger in his voice and focusing on how to solve the problem. "Were you enjoying your classes before you dropped out?"

"Well...no."

"And have you talked to your parents since you told them the news?"

"No."

"Did you give them any way to contact you in your new apartment?"

"...No..."

"Have you tried to hang out with Robb at all?"

"No, but when he and the other guys were planning on-"

"Did you talk to anyone at all?"

"Well...no."

"I think that's your problem, then," Arya continued. "I'm sure your parents are concerned, since they don't know what happened to you – for all they know, you could be lying in a ditch somewhere. If you explain to them the reasons why you dropped out, I'm sure they'd understand."

"I don't think tha-"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't be stupid. Where's your phone?"

"I don't have one..."

"Good thing I have a phone card and there's a phone in the lobby." Arya pulled the card out of her pocket, grateful once more for her mother's planning. "Go down there right now and let them know you're ok."

She could see him making a face like he was going to protest. "Now. Before I bring you down myself."

Apparently this was enough of a threat to get him moving. As he took the proffered card and started off to the door.

"And don't just stand down there and come back up. If I suspect that's what you did, I will go down there with you and dial the phone for you."

Sighing, he walked out. Once his footsteps had faded down the stairs, Arya took her first good look at her surroundings. Gendry's residence was a small studio apartment with slanted ceilings and creaky floorboards. Other than what she termed as "guy mess" – clothes scattered on the floor, empty soda cans on top of any available flat surface, and a lack of any decoration – the room was sparsely furnished. There was the futon, a rickety-looking table holding a tv, and a couple of boxes stacked in the corner.

After a few minutes of poking around, she decided that, though not ideal, this was not the worst place in the world to live. It could use more furniture, and a proper bed...and a good vacuuming. With a little work, it would be a good haven from the world. She would just prefer something with a little more space, thank you very much.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs, and the door being flung open. Wordlessly, Gendry grabbed her and spun her around.

"Thank you," he mumbled into her hair.

She didn't even have to ask to know things had gone well. She also felt like this wasn't the time to tell him not to be so stupid again. However, there was one thing that she needed to do.

"Gendry," she said quietly, tilting her head up.

"Arya," he replied, looking down.

"Go take a shower. You stink."

Laughing, he let her go and headed towards the door to the bathroom, and heard the shower go on.

Keeping herself busy, she began to tidy up a bit. Threw dirty clothes that were hastily tossed under the futon into a pile, filled a bag with random debris, and tried in vain to open a window. More quickly than she had anticipated, the shower stopped and the door opened. She glanced up, and felt herself turning red for two reasons. Once, she realized that the last piece of clothing she found was a pair of Gendry's boxers. Two, Gendry was standing in front of her, surrounded by dissipating steam. Wearing a towel.

With wider eyes and an annoyingly squeaky voice, she tossed the offending piece of clothing onto the pile and said "I was trying to open the window!"

Grinning, he said that it was painted shut, she would never get it open, Then, abruptly, he remembered that he was in a situation where he was not wearing clothes, and stammered that he would be right back, and ducked through a second door. Arya, followed his progression across the room, thinking to herself that if she gave the slightest hint of googly-cow eyes, she would just have to die. In a few moments, he emerged with a wet towel in hand, but with much more clothing on his body.

Tossing it now into the increasingly-growing pile of dirty laundry, he turned on the radio quietly and sat on the futon next to where Arya somehow found herself sitting.

He decided to ignore what had just transpired.

"What am I going to do, Arya?" He sat, slightly hunched over, looking at his hands.

"About what?"

"My life. My parents are going to want to know I have some sort of plan, and I have none."

"What do you enjoy doing?" she asked. '_Besides walking around half-naked and making me go all googly-eyed,'_ she added to herself.

"Um...I don't suppose I could make a living hanging out with you?"

"Then you would be a gigolo."

"So...you're saying that's not an option?"

"Let's add it to the 'not' list."

"Fine." Gendry sat back, keeping his arms to his side instead of laying one on the back of the futon, as he normally would have done. "Then what?"

Arya said something, but couldn't quite tell if it was a serious option or a joking one. She had just realized that their hands were an inch apart. Casually, she scooted her hand closer...then a little closer...said something else and moved it just a bit more...there!

Trying to keep the subterfuge up, she pointedly did not look down at where their fingers were just barely touching. Gendry did not look either, but asked if she wanted to go out somewhere. She said no, she just wanted to stay here and talk.

And not move.

Until he did. Almost imperceptibly, in time to the music, his pinky finger was gently moving against hers.

She swallowed.

Growing bolder, she moved her hand closer, until it was completely underneath his.

Neither of them were talking by this point.

Arya looked down and saw his thumb slowly moving over her hand.

'_Fuck it,_' she thought, and took a chance. Before she could lose her nerve, she half-rolled over and kissed him.

Lips pressed together, both froze, not moving.

"Arya," he breathed, but did not move.

Without a second thought she pressed her lips towards his again.

"Arya," he said again, with more force, and moved his hands to her upper arms. "No."

"You told be before that I got to be in control, that I got to choose how far it goes. And I chose."

Gendry signed and gently maneuvered her back to a sitting position. "It's not that simple."

She looked back at him with cold eyes. "Why not? It all seems very simple to me."

"You're too young."

"I'm four years younger than you. My mom was _ten_ years younger than my dad when they got married. Was she too young? What about Mr. and Mrs. Bae, at school? She's eight years older! There are bigger age gaps that work out just fine. Dammit, Gendry, four years is nothing!"

"You're too young right now," he attempted to clarify.

"What," she replied snidely, "and I magically going to be "old enough" in a month? A year? Five years?"

"Two," he said quietly, trying to keep Arya as calm as possible.

"Oh, so what brought you to this arbitrary decision? Is graduating high school a new maturity level? Will that make things all better for you?"

"Well...legally...yes."

The pieces began to fall into place. Two years...she would be eighteen. An adult. Taking shallow breaths, she stared at his concerned blue eyes.

"Alright...fine," she said, sitting up straight. "I hope things go well for you next week."

Then, to escape the situation she had put herself in, before Gendry could grasp what was happening, she walked out the door.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Gendry stared at the closed door. He could have caught her, brought her back..but anything he could think of doing involved far too many mixed signals.

He had not anticipated this happening tonight, even when Arya had shown up on his doorstep like it had been only days since they had seen each other last instead of months. He knew it would happen sometime...and knew he had been encouraging it. Why had he done the whole thing with walking around in a towel?

He got up and started to pace.

He had known it would turn to this when they sat on his futon, listening to the radio, but did he use any common sense? No. Did he consider the consequences when he started rubbing her hand? Of course not.

Angrily he kicked the leg of his futon, regretting it an instant later when he remembered he wasn't wearing any shoes.

Heaving another angry sigh, he collapsed on his futon again, wincing at the creak of the old frame. It would do him no good to go after her now, if he could even find her. He didn't know what to say, because he had never found it in himself to articulate.

Time, he knew, would be necessary to solve this. He would actually think about where things were going with Arya...and find out how to tell her. After his parents' visit, he would get his act together and visit her, and try to repair his stupidity. He just hoped he hadn't destroyed everything.

His mind cleared, though, at the exact wrong time for the song that came on the radio. "Gypsies, Tramp and Thieves" was in the middle of playing.

_Picked up a boy just south of Mobile_

_Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal_

_I was sixteen, he was twenty-one_

_Rode with us to Memphis_

_And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he'd done._

"Fuck you, Cher, Gendry said out loud, and turned off the radio. That was just a bad sign.

**Author's Note: There are so many tidbits of back story that don't quite fit in...Sansa's woes from the first time Catelyn gave her tampons for college is making me giggle right now. My original for Gendry's apartment would have set a much different tone for the end of the chapter.**

**Also, this was going to be so much shorter, but Robb and Sansa really wanted to hang out with Arya. Like a lot. **

**Thank you, as always to everyone who has read, reviewed, and followed/favorited this. I am flabbergasted at the response I've gotten, and I'm so glad all of you are enjoying it!**

**I'm glad Gendry is finally going to start thinking about what he's doing and planning and get it straight. He's been rather stupid lately, but lucky he has Arya to get him on the right track. :)**

**Hope this tides you over until phase five – beauty.**


	5. Phase Five - Beauty

**A/N Part the First: I don't own these characters, I just enjoy pulling them out and messing with them from time to time.**

**A/N Part the Second: This chapter is going to be a little different from the previous chapters. There was a fair amount of stuff left unfinished from 'Haven' that didn't quite fit in with how the chapter was going, and would make a nice contrast with the events of this chapter. Therefore, I decided to include the "fallout," as it were, with the next mini vignette as a counterpoint - these sections will alternate back and forth, with some happening in the past, and some happening in the present of the chapter. I believe I've set it up cohesively enough that it shouldn't be that hard to follow, so…enjoy!**

PRESENT DAY I:

Bran Stark seemed to be having a terrible day.

The gym class was currently in the archery unit, and he couldn't seem to aim - his arrows weren't hitting the target, and he was getting frustrated.

After Coach gave the all-clear that there were no more arrows to be shot, Gendry walked up to the younger boy.

"What're you having trouble with?" He asked, grabbing an arrow as he spoke.

Bran frowned, "it won't go straight - I don't know where my arm should go."

"Try pulling the string all the way to your nose."

"But that doesn't feel right."

Gendry smiled. "It is, I promise. You just have to keep your elbow back while you do it."

The younger boy looked at him incredulously.

"Here, show me how what you're doing." Bran complied, and Gendry reached out and touched his elbow. "Bring it back like this," he made and adjustment, "and it should feel better because it's not putting as much pressure on the muscle."

Bran nodded his agreement, and Coach yelled out that they were going to shoot again. All the students picked up their new arrows, and began to shoot as Coach gave the order.

Gendry grinned as Bran hit one of the rings on the target for the first time that day, then paused by another student who was having trouble with their footing.

After this volley of arrows finished, and Coach made sure no one was shooting, the class ran out to grab their arrows. He started back over to Coach to discuss how things had gone that day, when he heard a voice call out his name.

"Gendry!"

AFTERMATH I:

Gendry did not want to be "that guy," but seriously felt as if he were running out of options.

Four weeks had passed, since what he referred to as "that night," and he finally felt as if he was prepared to try to attempt to start to smooth over the rubble that was left of his relationship with Arya.

He hoped.

Finally speaking with his parents openly after the months that had passed since he had add announced he had dropped out of college and then dropped out of their lives had been a very difficult eye-opener. For the first time he told someone about the snowball effect that had run through his college career.

Freshman year he had done fairly well in his classes, but sophomore year had been a different story. Coasting on his success his first year, he had spent more late nights with the guys and less time in the study lounge, and that had taken its toll. He also found that his physics classes were proving more difficult than he anticipated, which concerned him less than it should have. He shrugged it off, because , well, he had always been fine before, and who flunked a class, anyway?

Later that semester, as he dropped the class, he vowed to re-take it next semester and spend far much more time on his academic career. This was all well and good until he started his new classes, and, even with a different professor, he hadn't done well. This other physics class wasn't going that well either. His advisor had stopped to speak with him, so he started avoiding the hallway where his office was...and soon the entire building, as he felt too awkward to ask for help. Then…it all spiraled out of control.

At the end of the year, he received a letter that he was on academic probation, so if he didn't bring his grades up…it was over. He had a falling out with Robb when he discussed moving in with some of the guys next year, found a place of his own for the year, and pushed the issue from his mind.

By the time summer was over, he didn't know how to dig himself out, and decided that he was done. He didn't want to waste any more time failing when he could live his own life, and told his parents he was done with his education, then cut off all contact.

He came to regret that as soon as he realized what life on his own was like.

Coming clean to his parents about what had been happening was a terrible feeling, but had helped immensely. They said he could come live at home without rent, for one year, on the condition that he earn his room and board by helping around the house, and he "consider his future." Knowing this was the best option on the table at this point, he agreed and moved back home.

It was weird, to say the least.

That was how he ended up here, with several bags of mulch in the back of his car, staring at the doors of his old high school, waiting for a sixteen-year old to walk out, and trying not to feel like that one creepy guy who would always wait outside the doors.

"Gendry!" called a voice from behind him.

PRESENT DAY II:

"Arya!" he called back, waving. Coach saw who Gendry had called out to, and gestured that it was ok he hang back. Gendry jogged back to the fence, grinning.

"Having fun ordering around the little ones?" she asked, looking tanned and sweaty in her running clothes.

"The best time," he jested, shooting a glance back at the retreating class. "I don't think they'll ever best Robin Hood in an archery contest, but most of them are hitting the target instead of the grass fifteen feet behind the target now."

"Just be sure to use your power for good, not evil," she reminded him as she wiped her brow.

"Of course I will," he responded, as always.

Arya jokingly reminded him of this each time she saw him at the school with Coach the past few months, and soon it had turned into their own in-joke.

"What are you doing all the way out here?" he asked, knowing he needed to go back in soon. "I thought you were helping your mom with the party?"

She groaned and tilted her head back dramatically. "I'm supposed to, but she's driving me _crazy_ with preparations." Mimicking her mother, she continued. "All day it's been 'Arya, help me put up these streamers!' 'Arya, come taste this!' 'Get down here and help me with these centerpieces!' I couldn't take it any more!"

"I take it you snuck out and started running while she was out getting one more thing?"

The expression on her face said it all.

For the past few weeks, Catelyn Stark had been in a frenzy preparing for Arya's graduation party, as she had for her older siblings before her. Her party was set for two weeks after graduation so that "more people could come for longer." Arya tried to explain that no one stayed that long, and that when people said they would 'drop by' it meant they were never going to show up, so it was stupid to plan a date around them. Catelyn insisted they needed to, however, so kept to her original plan.

"Are you coming?"

If he hadn't been paying attention, Gendry might have entirely missed the note of hopeful anticipation in her voice, or the brief flash of nervousness on her face. Since he had been anticipating it (waiting for it) he caught it, and responded in a more serious manner than they had been speaking previously that he wouldn't miss it.

After a pause, she said that she should be getting back home, or there will be hell to pay from her mother, then set an easy pace as she ran back down the hill. Gendry paused for a moment to watch her retreat and smiled to himself, then turned back towards the school. As he stooped down to pick up a stray arrow someone had left behind, he reflected on his plan for tomorrow.

'_No matter what happens, it'll be fine_,' he mused to himself.

AFTERMATH II:

Gendry jumped guiltily as he heard his name, thinking first that he would be in trouble for being over-age in a school zone. Quickly he realized how stupid that would be, and turned to the sound of the voice.

Squinting into the sun, he saw Coach striding towards him, carrying a kickball under his arm.

"Hey Coach!" he answered, walking towards his former instructor.

"What are you doing back here? I thought you would be off at college now!"

"Er…uh…" Gendry awkwardly ran his hand over the back of his head. "I'm taking a break from school for a while, so…thought I'd come back and visit since I had the chance."

"Well, come on with me," he clapped Gendry on the back. "I was wondering how you were doing!"

With one last glance back at the doors, he followed to his familiar haunting grounds.

A few minutes later, they sat in the office that Gendry had been so proud to have keys to years before. Little had changed - the walls were the same greenish-gray color with an orange stripe near the ceiling, stuffing still poked out of the chair, and the same dents were still in the desk. All that appeared to have changed were some of the posters on the wall and a new trophy in the cabinet.

He had seen little of Coach the last few years, but had been quite close to him during high school. Over the years, as he had given Gendry more responsibilities, he had also been the one he went to with his problems, or when he needed advice.

"What have you been up to?" Coach asked, leaning back in the familiar chair. "What was it you were studying?"

"Physics for a while," Gendry replied, determined not to go into the story of why he was no longer doing so. "But for right now, I'm figuring out what I want to do and, in the meantime, helping with yard work back at home. Basically, indentured servitude."

The older man laughed at that, and they talked for a few minutes about how the various teams around the school had been doing, and the game that had won them the newest trophy in the display case. Finally, the moment he had been dreading and actively trying to avoid happened.

"So, what are you thinking of doing when you go back," Coach asked, leaning forward.

"I don't know," he confessed, looking at his hands. "My parents told me to play to my strengths, but…I'm not quite sure what that is right now."

The man behind the desk pondered this for a moment. "No matter what you decide, just make sure it's the right decision for you. As long as you know what you'll be happy doing, you're going to be just fine."

PRESENT DAY III:

Choosing how he was going to do this, he decided, may just be the death of him.

He didn't want to be too forward, especially with how poorly this aspect of their relationship had started. Her, at his apartment. The kiss, her leaving. Their talk, and the unspoken words between them after that. The line he didn't want to even toe, because he wasn't sure of his reaction, or how far he could control himself.

It had to be the right balance. Not too cloying, or she would hate it, but not too aloof, or it wouldn't get his meaning across.

He frowned at the overly-glittery card in his hand, with some sort of cutesy note in it. That wasn't right. Nothing he looked at was right. Arya, he was sure, didn't even like cards, so he didn't even know he went to that section of the store anyway.

Thinking about it, he wasn't even sure why he came to this store in the first place. A store that sold cutesy figurines that you would give to your grandma for Christmas was not a place he should have even thought of, but he was stuck.

Frowning again, he quickly exited the store and left behind the strong scent of candles. Pausing a few stores down, he paused and discretely sniffed at himself. '_I'm going to smell like butterscotch candles all day now_.' Looking at his watch, he realized that he would have to get a move on and figure something out, or there would be another day lost, as his next class started in two hours.

Musing again on why he was having such difficulty with this, he headed out to his car, deciding to get some coffee and take a bit of time to think over what he would do. Without thinking about his destination, he ended up outside of the cafe that he and Arya had gone to a few years prior, when he took her on a "date."

Absently, he ordered a drink and sat at the small table in the corner of the cafe, as he accepted and rejected ideas that came into his head. Smiling, he again walked to the front counter where the girl behind the counter filling a container with coffee beans.

"I was wondering if you could do me a favor?" he asked, looking beseechingly at her.

"What can I help with?" she responded, putting a lid on the container she had been filling.

"I'm not sure if you'll recognize her, but there's a girl that comes in her a lot for your smoothies, kinda short, brown hair, and she has a particular order-"

She grinned. "Extra mango, no raspberry?"

"Exactly. I was wondering if I could leave some money here as a credit, so the next time she comes in, she doesn't have to pay."

"I think I can make that happen," she said, meeting his eyes. "I'm opening every morning this week, so I can spread the word, and she's never gone longer than a week without one since I've been here."

"Great, uh..." Gendry glanced down at her name tag. "...Willa! Now, would it be possible to put a message on then when she comes in?"

Silently, she picked up a piece of paper and a pen and place it in his hand, deliberately making sure their hands made contact. "Write down what you want on it here."

Happily, he jotted down a short message on the paper and pushed it across the counter back to Willa, along with a bill from his wallet to cover the payment. She glanced at him and smiled again. "Maybe you should put down your number too, just in case something goes wrong..."

Glancing up, he saw her batting her eyelashes at him, lips curving into a smile, and realized why, exactly, she was asking for his number.

"No," he said quickly in response, firmly pushing the paper back to her. "I think it will all be just fine."

With a polite smile, he picked up his coffee again and walked to the door, whistling. Just before he exited, he paused and turned around.

"Actually, if I could bother you for one more thing?" he asked, glancing back.

The girl smiled and leaned on the counter towards him.

Minutes later, after he had gotten the information he wanted, he turned again and walked out the door

This was, he was sure, going to work out well. After class was out, he had a few stops to make.

AFTERMATH III:

The next week, he parked in front of the school again, steeling himself for the events to come.

Today, he was going to find Arya, find a way to make her talk to him, and get this all smoothed out. But first, he was going to talk to Coach and ask for help. Maybe he knew of some sort of job around the school he would be qualified for, just so he could get back on some sort of track. He had been thinking on this since he had bumped into him the week prior, and had come to a decision, of sorts.

Remembering that it should be the middle of seventh period, he knew that Coach should be behind the school, preparing for eight period gym class. This should give him enough time to work something out, then be back to his spot by the end of the school day...

Walking around the building, he spotted the figure he was looking for, putting cones up on the field behind the school. He crossed over, and as the older man noticed his presence, he raised the small orange cone in his hand as a greeting.

"What brings out back out here this fine day?" he asked, kicking the cone he had just set down into line.

"I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something..." Gendry trailed off, not sure where to start.

"Help me out with this," he said, passing a bundle of cones to him, "and we'll go back in until my next class starts." Gesturing at the items he had placed in Gendry's hands, he pointed to his right. "Put two of them about forty feet that way and the other two about ten feet past. I'll finish up over here."

Nodding, he turned to his task, setting up as he was instructed. Maybe he could do this for a while, help out Coach again. Surely there was some sort of job in that?

With everything placed as it should be, he jogged back to where he began, and followed Coach as he began to walk back to the gym. As they entered the room, the familiar smell of basketballs and unwashed teenager wafted into his nose.

Soon, they arrived in the familiar office again, and they settled into chairs on either side of the desk.

"So," probed the older man, "you had a bone you wanted to pick with me?"

For a moment, he froze, unsure of how to start, then the words started flowing out.

"I wanted to see if there was maybe something here I could help you out with? Like for a job? I don't even know where to start, and I used to do a lot of things for you back when I was your student, so I was hoping maybe there was something here I could start with. I could help keep supplies straight, and be an extra set of hands for you during class, and-"

"Gendry," Coach stopped him, holding up his hand. "Do you really want to go back to doing what you did when you were in high school?"

"I want to do something,' he responded, looking down at the floor. "Show my parents that I'm making a new start."

Without speaking another word, Coach got up, walked around the desk, and sat in the second chair in front of his desk next to Gendry, and stared at him until he looked him in the eye.

"When I asked you your freshman year to help me out, it was because I needed help with some of the more routine, day-to-day things. But as time went on, I had you help out with a lot more, because I saw potential in you. I know you can do so much more than set up playing fields and follow orders. Now, I could talk to the principal and see if we could take you on, part-time, as an assistant, but, chances are, since you don't have the credentials and aren't a student anymore, that would happen."

Gendry's face fell at this, but Coach continued.

"The way I see it, though, we may be able to come to a different arrangement. Sometimes, students from the local community college come to shadow as part of their classes. I think, with your skill set, if you're a student, we could work out something where you could work here."

"But Coach...I don't even know what I would go back for...that's why I came to you in the first place." Gendry tried to hide his disappointment, but was having trouble doing so, and made as if to stand and exit.

Holding out a hand to stop him, the older man pulled a book from a shelf on the wall and placed it in Gendry's hands.

Looking down at the proffered tome, he saw it was a physical therapy guide book, Flipping it open, he paged to a full-color picture of the muscles of the human body.

"Now, I'm not positive, but I really think this is something you could be outstanding at. Whenever someone was injured, you seemed to know that they should and should not do to keep from being more injured, without having to ask. When you didn't know, you knew the right information to ask them for so you could come ask me or the nurse. That sort of knowledge and initiative goes a long way in this field."

As he paused, Gendry looked down again at the human form in the book on his lap. There was a passage that explained how the different muscle groups worked together, and how one being out of joint could effect the others around it. He thought there was a strange sort of beauty in how the body operated, if everything was in proper working order.

"It would be a lot of work, and study, and memorizing," the instructor said, gesturing to the book. "But if this is a field you would be interested in working in, and you start studying it, I believe I can make convince the principal to have you come in to assist me on a part-time basis, and I can help you study."

Nonplussed, Gendry started to stammer, but was stopped again.

"Take this book home with you, and think about if you would want to do this. Come back again in a week, and we'll talk. Same time?"

Nodding, Gendry smiled. Coach reach out and grasped his hand to shake it.

"I've got to head out for my next class now, but you think on that."

"Thank you!" Gendry called as the older man walked away.

He slowly walked out of the office and through the gym doors, staring down at the book and considering what Coach had told him. If he could really do this...something he found he actually enjoyed...then things might just work out for him.

Lost in thought as he was, he didn't notice the figure walking towards him, and collided into the smaller figure.

Reacting quickly, he stretched out his arm and grabbed the teetering figure, and panicked briefly when he saw a set of familiar gray eyes staring into his own.

"Arya?"

PRESENT DAY IV:

Saturday afternoon had arrived, and with it, Arya's graduation party. He had spent the past few days running through the events of tonight in his mind, and was certain he was ready.

Once more he check through the things he would need for the evening. Obligatory graduation card from his parents containing a check for the graduate? Check. Car keys? Check. Box containing everything else he would need for the night? Check.

With that, he grabbed the items he had just gone over and left the house, locking the door behind him, as his parents were out of town for the week, and hopped in the car. Immediately, his mind turned to everything that may screw up what he had planned. What if she had gone into the cafe since he had made his arrangement with the girl behind the counter? What if they forgot to put the message on the cup? What if she didn't do what he thought she would?

'_The odds of anything like that happening are so low you shouldn't even worry about it. But in order for anything to go to plan at all, you have to be there. Stop psyching yourself out and get moving._'

Thanking his inner self for the pep talk, he started on his way.

Minutes later, he pulled up to the house and circled the block, looking for the closest parking spot on the street. Stowing the box under the passenger seat, he grabbed the card and walked up. The front door was open, and there were people milling around in the living room, so he joined them and scanned the room for the guest of honor.

With a start, he felt a hand clap on his back. "Gendry!" exclaimed the voice connected to the hand. "You made it!"

Turning, Gendry faced Robb and grinned. "If I missed it, your sister would never forgive me."

"Probably not," he said, glancing at the card in Gendry's hand. "Let me toss this in with the rest of them, and then we can head out back." Quickly he glanced around the room. "I've been trying to avoid Uncle Benjen all night, he's been trying to convince me that I should start a career in the military like Jon, and I can't seem to convince him that that won't work for me."

Covertly, Robb crossed the room, put the envelope in the basket with a sizable amount of others, and waved Gendry over to him.

"Uncle Benjen's talking to Mom in the kitchen, so if we sneak back now, we should make it!"

With a chuckle, Gendry made a show of looking around the corner and stealthily crossing the room, and followed his friend outside.

"Man," Robb said, cracking open a can of some sort of fizzy beverage from a cooler. "I'm glad you came. It's been a parade of teenagers through here since this started. I was starting to feel out of place. Mom insisted I be here for the entire thing, but didn't give me anything to do, and Sansa took over all the food prep stuff."

"Glad I could help out," he responded, grabbing a drink for himself. "It looks like your mom went to a lot of trouble for this, so it was the least I could do to come over and enjoy it."

"I'm not even sure Arya noticed half of this stuff," Robb continued, gesturing to the lights strung around the yard and trellises standing above tables filled with refreshments. "I think this is kinda lost on her."

Laughing again, Gendry agreed, and the two talked for a few minutes about what they had been doing the past few months – Robb had been finishing up his second-to-last semester as an undergrad and was thinking about what school to pursue his graduate work at, while Gendry went over his latest PT classes and the extra work he had been doing at the high school. Just as Robb had started telling a story about a girl that had come into class drunk with a sheet cake, a man who resembled the pictures Gendry had seen of Ned Stark walked up to them.

"Robb, I've been looking for you all afternoon!"

Gendry could tell from the expression on Robb's face that this must be his uncle Benjen, so subtly stepped back and headed off to another corner of the yard.

Once he deemed himself far enough away to avoid being drawn into the conversation that Robb was so dreading, he investigated the tables and their contents.

'_These must be the centerpieces Arya was talking about_,' he thought, picking up an elaborate-looking basket filled with silk flowers and paper cranes. He was pretty sure he could tell which ones Arya had made because, compared to the crisp folds that could only have been made by Catelyn Stark, the remaining ones were hastily folded and uneven.

Keeping on his trajectory from the awkward family conversation, Gendry stepped back into the house and glanced around. He had still not found Arya, and if he didn't, it would really put a damper on his plans for the night.

Absently, he glanced upstairs, then around the room, then realized what he had seen at the top of the stairs. It looked like the matriarch of the family had a hand in deciding what her youngest daughter would wear to the party, as he was positive Arya would not be wearing a sunflower-yellow dress with a matching bow in her hair.

"Arya," called Bran, who had appeared behind Gendry while he was distracted. "What's the hold up?" Grinning, he drew the attention of the rest of the room. "Why don't you come down and greet your guests?"

Shooting a death glare at her younger brother, Arya complied, stepping down the stairs awkwardly in matching yellow high heels into a throng of family members that had appeared, all of them congratulating her on her recent graduation. With her new found height, she caught a glimpse of Gendry in the corner and beamed at him.

After fighting her way through the crowd, attempting to receive compliments and answer questions about her future with good grace, Arya escaped from the group and made a beeline towards him.

"You came!" she said excitedly, grinning up at him.

"I told you," he said, smiling gently as he locked his gaze in with hers, "I wouldn't miss it for anything."

Impulsively, she reached and hugged him. Breathing in, he caught a faint whiff of cedar.

As she stepped back, she tottered a bit, and he reached out a hand to steady her.

"If you say one word about me looking 'unexpectedly good,'" she warned, putting air quotes around what a phrase that appeared to have been bandied about quite a bit already, "I will hurt you."

Nodding, Gendry replied in mock-serious tone, "You look terrible today."

"Thank you," she said with genuine relief. "Everyone seems to think I should look like this all of the time."

"No," he disagreed, "You should dress how you feel comfortable. And I think you're more of a running clothes type than a swishy yellow dress type."

"Sansa picked it out," she admitted, awkwardly smoothing down a bit of flounce. "Then Mom demanded I wear it once she saw me in it."

"Oh my darling Arya!" called a crazy-looking woman as she crossed the living room floor. "How wonderful you look! I must have a picture." With no more ceremony than that, she clutched Arya's arm and dragged her back to the stairs, and her captive looked back at him with an apology in her eyes.

Realizing he could not hope to get her back from the new entanglement of well-wishers, Gendry turned again to the yard and sought out Robb. He had managed to get away from his uncle, and was sitting in a chair with his feet up.

"I think in time he may give up," Robb said in greeting, with a small amount of hope in his voice. "I told him how excited I was about going to grad school, and that seemed to get to him a little bit."

"Good luck on that," Gendry replied, raising his can in a toast.

The two began talking again and were actually able to sustain a conversation without being interrupted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure in brilliant yellow enter the yard and be bombarded with yet another group of well-wishers. Each time she fell into conversation with someone she appeared to want to talk to, a new family member, neighbor, or friend of the family came up and interrupted that conversation.

After an hour, Robb suggested they head out to get a 'real drink' as soon as the party was over, feeling fairly certain he could sneak out without his mother noticing. He declined, citing that he had some plans tonight, and that he should really get going, but did ask one favor of his friend, with the promise that he would owe Robb a beer later, which he quickly agreed to.

Making his way across the yard, he managed to catch Arya during one of her brief reprieves, where she was trying to grab something to eat before being dragged off yet away.

Gendry reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. As she saw him, she dropped the fake smile she must have been using all night on interloping family members. "I think you're the first person tonight to come up to me that I wanted to talk to me!"

"Sad, it won't be for long…I've got to run…I've made some plans tonight, and I've got to get ready for that."

Frowning, she looked at him. "You're leaving already?"

"Yeah, I have something to prepare for…but I'll see you soon, ok?"

Again she pulled him into a hug, and he inhaled the cedar scent. Leaning down, he whispered "Congratulations," in her ear, then pulled back. Almost instantly, Arya was pulled into yet another conversation, this time with the twelfth-grade English teacher.

As he stepped out of the house, he smiled to himself. He had one stop left before he went to the park by the café, and then he had to get set up.

AFTERMATH IV:

"Sorry…" Arya murmured, stepping away while she avoided his gaze, and turned to walk past him.

"Arya, please…just please…let me explain."

Pausing for a moment, she stared at him. "Five minutes."

With that, she turned and walked out the doors behind them, pausing for a moment as she opened the door for him to follow. He complied, and walked after her to a picnic table at the edge of the school grounds, by the forest and away from the school.

As he looked at her in askance, she said "I have eighth period leave, so I'm not missing anything."

Nodding nervously, he sat down across from her and sat the book he was carrying down on the bench beside him, and she folded her arms. "So?" she prompted, pointedly not looking at him.

"Arya…I know that things didn't go well between us the last time we talked."

She made a derisive noise in response.

"But I want to explain to you where I'm coming from…where I was coming from."

He took her lack of response as a sort of encouragement to go on.

"When I said before…that you're too young…wasn't entirely the truth. I mean, you're sixteen, I'm twenty…you're so mature, but that's still not a good position to be in.

"You caught me by surprise that night. I…I didn't know what to do, what to say, how to react. I had never let myself think about you like that before, not really. And you were there, and I was afraid of taking advantage of you, of making you do something you weren't ready for, and I panicked."

"I was ready," she said pulling her legs to her chest and grasping her arms around them.

"Maybe you were at first," he responded gently, looking at her, though she was still averting her eyes. "But there are other things that could have happened, right then and there, that you may _not_ have been prepared for." He felt his heart pound at the thought of what could have happened, and mentally shook himself to bring him to the present. "The last thing I want to do is hurt you…I was just doing the best I could think of to avoid that."

"You failed," she said bluntly, looking at him with her head propped on her knees.

"I know I did, Arya. I know. But…just try to see where I'm coming from. Until about two months ago, I was a college dropout, I didn't know where I was going to be in a month, much less a year. I was separated from my friends, my family, my best friend…and then there she comes, practically knocking down my door and demanding to be let back into my life. My life was a mess, and having you be part of that uncertainty was too much.

"It would have been too easy to go along with it, and use you to make me feel better for then, but it wouldn't have been fair to you, no matter how good it would have been that night. I care about you too much to let that happen. You don't have to understand what I did, but I want you to at least know."

They sat in silence for a moment, and Gendry let Arya digest what he had just said.

"And…where are you now?" she asked quietly, from her side of the table.

"I'm living back here with my parents…but I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm still a mess. I still don't know what I'll be doing in a year from now, or where I'll be."

"And if I said I still wanted to try?"

Gendry closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You have no idea how much I'd like to say yes. But I need to figure out my life before I throw you into the mix like…like that. But one day…if you would still want to…absolutely."

"So, am I just supposed to sit around and wait for this mystery day?" she asked, looking him dead in the eye for the first time since they had bumped into each other in the hallway. "Wait until you sort things out and _you_ decide it's ok to let _me_ in?"

"No…I don't want that for you. If you think I'm taking too long, if there's someone else, if you don't care anymore, that's your decision. I won't stop you. I won't ask you to wait for me, that's not fair. But, if, when I do know…when you're a little older…when I could be the person I want to be, for you…I'll let you know and let you make the decision. It's not the best, I know, but it's the best I have right now."

"What if I say no, right now? What will you do?"

"If you want me to go, completely stay out of your life, I'll do that," Gendry replied laying his hand on the table between them.

She hugged her knees closer, then let them go.

"I need time, I think. To think. But…I don't want you out of my life."

"Whatever you want."

"Just…give me some time." She reached out her hand and left it close to his, but not touching.

"I will."

With one more long look, she rose from the table and began to slowly walk towards the school.

"Gendry," she said over he shoulder as she stopped briefly. "Did you say I was…your best friend?"

"Yes," he said simply.

"Next Tuesday, the café, at four. We can talk more then." Without another word, she turned back and continued walking.

Smiling faintly with relief, Gendry called after her, "I'll see you soon!"

It wasn't the perfect ending, but it wasn't the end, which was good.

PRESENT DAY V:

Gendry heaved a sigh of relief as he saw a familiar figure run up to the door of the café in the distance and come to a stop, bending over and breathing heavily with her hands on her knees. His deal with Robb had gone according to plan, and he must have convinced his mother that Arya be excused from cleaning up after the party, at least for an hour or two, and that he could help. Gendry knew he would end up owing his friend more than just a beer, but it would be worth it.

He hoped.

As Arya stepped into the shop, Gendry turned on the flashlights he had brought and aimed them at the sky, which provided just enough ambient light on the picnic blanket he had laid out to see by, and stepped back a few paces to view his handiwork. Laid out on the blanket was a wrapped present with a card and a small basket with some snacks in it.

Less than a minute later, he saw a now-puzzled female exit the café, staring at the cup in her hand. Uncertainly, she crossed the street to the park and followed the path to where he had set out the picnic, and stopped in her tracks when she arrived.

Gendry walked out to her from where he had been standing.

"I thought you could use a reprieve tonight, after your party today. And something to eat."

Wordlessly, she stepped onto the blanket and sat down.

"How did you know I would-" Arya questioned, confused.

"I may have engineered things a smidge," Gendry responded, settling himself next to her. "I got Robb to agree to convince your mother to let you go out after the party, instead of cleaning up…I owe him for that, since that's what he's doing tonight. And I knew that if I mentioned running even once at the party, you would probably just go ahead with that. Since this is one of your favorite places, I thought this would be the best bet."

Arya looked at him suspiciously.

"The girl at the counter didn't charge me for my smoothie, either…"

"Again me, if you hadn't guess from the note on the cup."

"And she gave me a terrible glare when she handed it to me."

"I was afraid that might happen."

"Why?"

He leaned forward, "I think she may be jealous of you."

"Why?" she asked, taking as sip.

"Open you present," Gendry responded, grinning and gesturing to the box in front of him.

Hesitatingly, she set down her drink and studied the package in front of her.

"It's not going to explode, you know."

With a devilish grin, she ripped the paper off and revealed the box it contained.

"…Did you just get me a blender as a graduation present? "

"You should also open this," he said, handing her the card that had been forgotten in her opening frenzy.

Ripping over the envelope, she pulled out a piece of laminated card stock. Written on it in Gendry's block writing was the recipe with exact proportions of the smoothie that Arya had just set down.

"I knew when you went off to school you wouldn't be able to stop by every week to get your favorite drink," he explained, "and I wanted to be sure you could have it wherever you were."

Arya sat and ran her hand over the card. "That's so sweet of you," she said in wonder. "I hadn't even thought of that."

Grinning, Gendry flipped open the basket he had filled with Arya's favorite foods and tossed a wrapped bagel sandwich her way.

"I also thought you may not have gotten the chance to eat all night, so I got you some snacks too."

With widened eyes, she tore the wrapper off of her sandwich prize and sunk her teeth in. After she had swallowed her first bite, she moaned," this is the best sandwich I have ever eaten in my life."

As Arya devoured the first real food she had eaten in probably the last ten hours, Gendry pulled out the other treats he had brought onto the blanket, and explained he had a grill going nearby so they could have s'mores.

"This is the best graduation present ever," Arya said happily, lying down on the blanket to look at the stars. "Everything else today has been such a chore. This is the first time today someone did something for me, it feels like."

"I'm glad to hear I could help," he grinned, offering her some licorice and lying down next to her.

They talked for a few more minutes about whatever came to mind, then Arya asked if it was time for s'mores yet. In response, he got up and offered his hand to her in assistance. Taking it, their eyes met for a moment, which ended quickly when a dragonfly flew into Arya's face.

She was still complaining about the bug impact on her face while they were roasting marshmallows.

"…With absolutely no regard for anyone else!" she exclaimed, in the middle of a rant. "I mean, I'm sure I got the better end of the deal, since he was in a much bigger accident than me, but it was totally his fault, so I could sue!"

"You're going to sue a dragonfly?" Gendry asked incredulously as he slid his now-toasted marshmallow on the s'more he was making.

"Well, not _really_, but it's fun to imagine!" Grinning, she took her last bite and walked back to the blanket. 'I'm soooo stuffed," she announced as she collapsed once again onto her back.

He soon joined her on the blanket, and they both licked the melted chocolate from their fingers, then lay in silence together, staring into the sky.

"Arya," Gendry said suddenly.

"Gendry."

"Here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded note and handed it to her without further ado.

She unfolded the paper and studied the writing on it for a long minute. Inscribed on the paper in the same block handwriting as the recipe for her smoothie were the words 'If you want me - I'm yours.'

Slowly, Arya rolled to her side and propped herself on her shoulder, so she could look down at her companion.

"Gendry?"

Blue eyes tinged with nervousness slowly turned towards gray.

"Does this mean what I think it does?"

He nodded slightly from underneath her.

Without hesitating, she leaned down and pressed her lips to his. This time, he didn't stop her, and responded in kind, lacing his hand through the hair at the back of her head to bring her closer to him.

For just a few minutes, the world did not matter, and it was just the two of them, together for the first time.

**A/N: Whew, that took a bit longer than I anticipated. Oddly, going out of town for the weekend then having your wisdom teeth removed will keep you from writing as much as you would like. Go figure!**


	6. Phase Six - Calm

Rickon Stark had started his first day of high school and was, thus, in his mother's eyes, old enough to be home, under the care of his older brother, without her for the weekend.

Arya was simultaneously happy for the distraction her mother was providing and counting the minutes until she would finally leave.

Currently, her mother was frowning at the kitchen cabinet she was stocking with various canned and boxed goods. "They certainly didn't clean this out before they left," she muttered as she dragged her finger over the shelf and inspected the crumbs that had come with it. "Where did I put that spray..."

Firmly pushing the items she was planning on putting inside, she picked up a spray bottle and a new rag and began to clean.

Arya sighed and turned back to the entertainment center she was currently trying to assemble.

"Where in the hell did I put part Q?" she wondered out loud, searching for the elusive side panel. Assembling furniture was not her forte, but she felt she was far more equipped for this task than risk putting something in her new kitchen in the wrong place.

"Make sure you vacuum before you put it together!" her mother called over her shoulder as she began wiping down the next shelf. "Always start with a clean surface, it will make it so much easier to keep up with as time goes by."

Rolling her eyes, but realizing that her mother did have a point, she stepped through the maze of screws, boards, and piles of hardware until she reached the closet and opened it. Sure enough, her mother's first task upon entering her daughter's apartment was to place the vacuum she had purchased in its place in the hall closet. If her mother did drive her crazy by the end of the day, she would at least have a well-organized apartment to come back to after she was released from the sanatorium.

As she stepped back to the corner where the finished unit would eventually sit, she narrowly avoided stepping on a long, thin board, and kicked it out of the way. Pushing the button to turn on the vacuum, she saw the sticker reading 'Q' attached to the back of the board. '_At least I know where that is_,' she thought to herself.

After she finished, Arya set back to her task, attaching board Q to base section C with screw size #5. Absentmindedly, she lowered her hand to her stomach and breathed for a moment, then consulted her instruction booklet for what parts she would need next.

"There!" proclaimed her mother proudly, standing back from the cupboard that had been designated for cups to admire her work. "I think that will work quite nicely."

Arya leaned back to look at the kitchen, as her mother so clearly wanted her to. "It's great, Mom. Thanks for helping out with all of this, but you really don't have to do all of this, I'm sure that I-"

"Oh, don't be silly, Arya!" she exclaimed, carefully shutting the cupboard door. "I want to be sure this is all taken care of so you can focus on school, instead of where to find a plate when you need one. Now, come over here, and I'll show you where I put everything."

Wearily, her daughter rose to her feet again and trudged back into the kitchen, dutifully nodding and agreeing with the placement of various kitchen implements, mentally planning where they would be put once her mother left.

"Now, once I get this dirt swept up, I'll come in and help you put that together," Catelyn said, gesturing to the piles of material that should, hopefully, turn into an entertainment center. Silently, Arya nodded and went back to deciphering the directions.

"I don't know why you bought such a big one, or why you even got one in the first place. You said you weren't bringing a television, and you have such a small stereo..."

As casually as she could, Arya answered her mother's query as she lined up two other boards. "Well, Gendry has a fairly big television and an entire sound system, and he has it set up on some TV tables right now. I figured this would would the best fit for everything."

"Why would it matter what Gendry has? This is your apartment."

"Mom...Gendry is going to be living here with me." Pointedly, she continued to work on her project, sounding as much as she could like the adult she was. "We've been talking about it for a while, and decided this was the best option."

"Oh..." her mother replied, at a loss for what to do for the first time that day.

As she maneuvered a large board to fit onto the pegs she had just stuck in the base, she continued. "Gendry has been speaking with the school here to have his credits transferred, so we can both study here and finish up our classes. There's a hospital and a clinic nearby where he can apply for an internship as soon as he reaches that point, and this is a good central location for both of us.

"So you got a two-bedroom apartment because-"

"Because we wanted to have a designated study room. We'll put our desks in there, and have a bookshelf for our classwork and materials. I'm going to put my big lamp in there and shop around for some other table lamps so we have plenty of light to work by."

Arya said this with no room for argument in her voice. She hoped that by telling her mother this as a statement of fact instead of asking some sort of permission, it would make the news go over more smoothly.

Without saying another word, her mother pulled an electric tea kettle out of the cabinet over the stove, filled it with water, and pulled out the necessary ingredients for two cups of tea. Unsure of how to proceed from this turn of events, she carefully attached the glass doors to her project. Surely it must be not a terrible indication that her mother was making tea for the two of them?

Keeping busy with her tea preparations, Catelyn stayed silent in the kitchen as her daughter watched her warily. Finally, she walked into the living room with a steaming mug of tea in each hand, and settled herself onto the armchair, then looked pointedly at her daughter, then at the second mug of tea.

Putting down her screwdriver, Arya once again walked through the maze of parts. It was easier this time, since she had put a fair amount of it together. She took the proffered drink and settled herself cross-legged on the floor, as there was no other furniture in the room.

"When you your planning on telling me?" the woman in the chair asked, blowing softly on the surface of her drink to cool it.

"We were going to tell you together, at dinner tonight," Arya replied, dunking her tea bag up and down.

"How long have you been planning this?"

"Honesty, we only found out for sure a few weeks ago, when we found this place. We had planned to move in together after we both finished school and could find a location that was good for both of us. Then Gendry heard that they were opening up his program here, so we talked it over, and decided the time was right for us."

Catelyn took a dainty sip. "Are you sure this isn't going to..._distract_ you from your studies?"

"If anything," Arya said carefully, still fidgeting with the tea bag, "we hope it will make things easier. Since we'll be living together, we won't be making trips during the weekend to visit, or trying to talk on the phone every night. It'll take so much pressure off of us trying to spend time together, and let us focus on school."

"Mmm..." was the only reply she received. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their tea and surveying what else needed to be done. Gendry would be coming tonight with a van filled with his belongings and some of the furniture they would furnish the apartment with. She was hoping that Robb would come through with the couch he had been saying he would give her soon, so that their living room wouldn't be dominated by the now-rickety futon Gendry still owned.

Breaking the silence first was Catelyn, who mentioned that she should be getting back to the silverware drawer and stepped back into the kitchen, half-drunk tea still in hand. Since it seemed question time was over, Arya went, once again, back to the project at hand. The two women worked in silence in adjacent rooms until they heard a fumbling of keys at the door. In a flash, Arya abandoned her screwdriver once again and opened the door.

Standing just outside the doorway was Gendry, face flushed from carrying a large box up the stairs. Hardly allowing him a moment to set his parcel down inside the door, she ran to him and clung. Even though she had grown taller in the past few years, she still only reached him mid-chest.

"I missed you," she murmured into his chest, pulling him tighter.

"I missed you, too," he whispered back. After a moment of holding her, he gently released his grasp as he noticed that Arya's mother was standing inside and watching their reunion.

"Mrs. Stark," he said to the third person in the apartment, extending his hand to shake hers. "It's good to see you again."

After a moment's pause, she smiled at him and, ignoring his hand, gave him a quick, motherly hug.

"I'm glad you could make it over here and help Arya out with everything today," he said, smiling warmly at her. "It would have been a big project on her own."

"I'm her mother, I couldn't very well let her do this all alone," she said, glancing at Arya. "It's a big step she's taking right now, and I want to make sure she has the help she needs. If you two would excuse me?" With that, she placed her now-empty cup in the sink and closed herself in the bathroom.

"What's going on?" Gendry asked, dropping his keys on the counter.

"I told her," Arya said quietly, stepping closer.

"What?" he responded, alarmed.

"She stared asking questions, and I wasn't feeling up to making up lies until tonight. So I told her."

"And?"

"She told you to call her by her first name, and she gave you a hug. I'm not sure she's totally ok with it, but she doesn't appear to want to disown me, so I think that's a good sign. We can talk more after dinner."

He nodded and pushed the box he had carried up further inside.

"Did you just get your keys?" Arya asked in a normal tone of voice.

"Yeah...I stopped by the office on my way up," he said. "I'm going to run down and grab some more stuff...unless you need help?"

"No," she shook her head, "I've got it under control."

Propping the door open with a shoe had had tossed in the box he brought up, Gendry headed down for his next load.

Once he had left again, Catelyn emerged from the restroom. "Oh dear, I forgot to get you a toothbrush holder – I'll pick one up tonight for you and bring it over tomorrow."

Arya smiled, knowing it was futile to try to resist. "You mentioned before you would help me put this thing together?"

"Of course!" They went to work together and, surprisingly, were able to complete the project without too much trouble. Every few minutes, her boyfriend would make a brief appearance and drop off something else.

"I'll let Gendry hook everything up," Arya decided as they pushed the piece of furniture into the corner, "since it's his stuff anyway."

As if he knew his name was being spoken, Gendry entered the room once again and set down another box. "Mrs. Stark, could I bother you for a bit of help? I've got something to bring upstairs that's kind of unwieldy."

Arya tried to volunteer her help, but Gendry asked her to please put some of his things in the living room from the box he had just brought upstairs. Confused, she agreed, and her mother pulled her shoes on to go outside.

After a few minutes of pulling out and untangling various cords – she was sure Gendry had never heard of a twist-tie – she realized that her mother and her boyfriend had been gone for rather a long time, and looked out of the window to see if she could get any information. All she could see was her mother struggling to push the futon mattress out from the back of Gendry's car, while Gendry pulled from the other side. Deciding he was just a poor packer, she went back to unloading things from the box.

Eventually, she heard the sound of two people maneuvering something up the stairs, and abandoned the boring task of figuring out what cords went to which electronic device.

Catelyn beamed at Arya as she and Gendry plopped the futon mattress on the floor and wiped her eyes.

"Mom...are you alright? It looks like you've been crying."

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" her mother insisted, wiping her eyes again. "Just a touch of allergies."

Gendry also smiled at her and glanced at her work in the living room. "That looks great, I can take care of the rest later."

"I think," her mother added, adjusting her shoe, "that if we all head down, we should be able to get everything up in two more loads, then I say we take a break and get something to eat."

"That would be great, Mrs. Stark," Gendry said, grinning at her.

"Please, call me Catelyn," she responded warmly, looking slightly misty-eyed.

Still suspicious of the situation, but eager for sustenance, Arya also pulled on her shoes, and they managed to unload everything else from the vehicle, then all hopped in and went downtown to find a restaurant they all could agree on.

XXXXX-XXXXX

A few hours later, after they had re-assembled the futon and put boxes in appropriate rooms to be unpacked, Catelyn bid them both goodnight and went to her hotel to rest up, promising she would be back tomorrow with breakfast and to help out with whatever else was needed.

When Arya made motions as if to continue unpacking, Gendry shook his head and took her hand, leading her to the futon, and stretched out on his side, pulling her down with him, arm around her. They lay in silence for some time, enjoying being alone together for the first time in weeks, as he traced circles down her arm.

As she snuggled in closer, he kissed the back of her neck and caught a whiff of her familiar cedar scent and made she made that moaning noise that made him lose all sense of reason…

Some time later, the slight girl rolled over to lay next to him, and sighed contentedly in his neck. "This is so much better now that we don't have to worry about my roommate coming in for 'just one more thing' that she forgot."

After a moment of contemplation, she paused and announced, "Ugh…I'm all sweaty and sticky now from moving all day. I'm taking a shower." She scampered off to the bathroom and closed the door, the sound of the shower soon following.

"I don't think moving is all to blame for your present state!" he called through the door.

Gendry only heard some giggling in response.

Feeling slightly awkward sitting around in the living room without any clothes on, he located his boxers (flung across the room so that they were lying on top of the entertainment center) and put them back on and wandered over to a sheaf of papers he had left lying on the counter. Lease…rental agreement…his transcript…the letter.

Pulling it out, he again read the letter he had received in the mail that morning. Initially, he had been excited to open it, but that feeling had quickly changed once he read the words '_we regret to inform you…_'

As he heard the bathroom door open, he quickly shoved the letter back in with the papers. He should tell her tonight…but his resolve was slipping after current events…

"Your turn," Arya grinned at him, clad in a towel, hair dripping around her face.

As he tried to give her a kiss, she shoved him towards the now-open door. "Get clean first. You're still all gross."

Obligingly, he sauntered over to a bag he left next to the front door and pulled out his own towel. "I'll be right back."

In a few minutes, he came out, clean as well, and stopped in his tracks with what he saw. Arya had taken a shirt from his bag to pair with her pajama pants, and was sitting on the futon with a familiar-looking letter in her hands.

"What's this?" she asked, all of her good humor from before gone.

"It's not what you're thinking…well, it sort of is, but not really…" he trailed off, searching for his own sleepwear and toweling of his hair. "It seems as though I can't transfer straight to the school here. They're taking into account my grades from _everything_ post-high school, not just the classes I've taken since I started PT training. So, they're a little skittish about letting me in and are requiring I have a couple more credits to my name before they transfer anything."

Arya's voice was flat. "How many credits? How long?"

"I talked to my adviser before I drove over here today. He says that there's a half-semester class that would give me the credits I need, and it was something I needed to take at some point. I can probably finish in a month and a half…"

Seeing the devastated look in her eyes, he sat next to her and tried to put his arm around her, but she shied away.

"I won't be able to move in quite yet…I'll have to spend the weekdays in practical, and study during the weekend, so…I also won't be able to come visit. But once it's over, I'll be here right away, and everything will be back on plan."

"Nothing is working out right," she whispered to herself, retreating further into the corner of the futon.

"I know it's not what we were planning, but it's only a month and a half…and I'll make sure to call every night. We've made it this long, and after this it's all smooth sailing."

Paling slightly, Arya began to fiddle with the zipper on the throw pillow her mother had given her.

"Is there something else bothering you?" Gendry asked, turning towards her.

"I threw up this morning," she finally announced.

"Are you getting sick?" he asked, automatically putting his hand out to her forehead. "Do you want me to get you some medicine from the store?"

"It's not like that…"she trailed off, still not looking at him. "It's happened every morning this week."

"You're…pregnant? But we've always been careful…"

"I'm not sure," she whispered at her knees, "but nothing like this has ever happened to be before."

"Arya," he said quietly, tilting up her head. "We're going to get through this. I can take a break from school for a year and move up right now, if it is true. I'm not going to let you go through this alone."

"No, she said miserably, staring straight forward. "You had so much trouble going back before, you're not going to stop again. Who knows if they'd let you back after that."

Gendry took a breath. "We'll get you a test tomorrow, and we can make a decision from there."

"No! You are not going to make the same stupid decision again!" For the first time in several minutes she looked back up at him. "I'm an adult, and I can take care of myself for a few weeks." She giggled slightly hysterically, then continued. 'I'm taking vitamins and everything, that's very adult!" 

Unintentionally, he snorted. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but the way you said that…it's like saying 'I can tie my shoes – that's a really great reason to hire me!'"

"My mom literally spent fifteen minutes last week lecturing me on the importance of vitamins and that I need to take them every day, so I stay healthy. She said it was the 'adult' thing to do, and 'responsible.' There were a lot of important words being thrown about during that time."

"Wait a second…you just started taking those vitamins last week?" Gendry asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Don't turn into my mom, that's just not fair. If you're going to act like that, I'm not sure if I want to live with you."

"Do you have them here?"

"Yes…" she replied slowly.

"Bring them here."

He watched as she rummaged around on a shelf in the bathroom, and came back with a bottle of one-a-day vitamins, which she handed to him. He turned it around and read the label, then looked at her.

"Did you know," Gendry said conversationally, tossing the bottle from hand to hand, "that multivitamins contain high amounts of iron and zinc?"

"Well, if you take them once a day, that makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Did you also know that high amounts of these can cause nausea?"

For the first time since she had found the letter, Arya began to smile. "So if you take them every morning…"

"…They may make you sick to your stomach." He tossed the bottle in the direction of the garbage can. "Don't take these tomorrow…if this is all it is, you're going to feel fine tomorrow, and we can chalk this up as a learning experience."

Giddily, she threw herself at him, knocking him down on his back. "So, a month and a half, and you'll be living here?"

"As long as you'll have me."

"Good," she said, leaning in close to him and lowering her voice. "Then we better make the best of the few days we have until then, if you're not going to be here for so long…"

"I guess there goes my plan of a calm, quiet weekend with you."

"You haven't even seen me riled up yet, mister," she breathed into his ear.

XXXXX-XXXXX

Later that night, as they lay in their new bedroom on the futon mattress they had pulled in – Robb would be coming with her bed the next day, so they had to make do – Gendry gently stroked Arya's hair as she drifted off to sleep, and contemplated what he would do after these few golden days were over. He had brought up most of this things, leaving only the bare essentials he would need for the next month and a half he would be spending in his parents' house.

Tomorrow he would set up the electronics in the entertainment center – Arya had said she did not want to do so, and it was his job to put it together, since she wanted to set up her desk in the study room. Then he would help organize and get things set until he had to leave Monday afternoon.

After that…he had one more errand to run before he arrived back at his parents'. He had purposely engineered a trip downstairs alone with Catelyn, feeling she would appreciate knowing his plans, especially since she had just had the bomb dropped on her that he and Arya would be living together.

Nervously, he had said he was planning on asking Arya to marry him soon, and she had given her wholehearted support when he told her his plan. With that confirmed, he would put down his second-to-last deposit on the ring he had chosen, with the final payment coming as he would be heading back to live here full-time.

Squeezing her gently one last time as he drifted off to sleep, a smile appeared on Gendry's face. Life wasn't quite perfect, but he had every confidence it would be.

**Author's Notes: Whew, this whole "moving in together" thing is turning out to be quite the ride! Things never seem to go smoothly for these two…which I know, at least in this case, is totally my fault. However, what fun is there without problems?**

**Once again, and huge thank you to everyone that has favorited, followed, and reviewed! It's such a great confidence boost to have all these notifications that people are enjoying what I'm writing!**

**There's only one prompt left for this fic – drugs, which is going to be…interesting, methinks. After that, I'm thinking of a few other things to write, probably one-shots to start out with, and see where things go from there.**

**Have a lovely weekend!**


	7. Phase Seven - Drugs

**NOW:**

Arya Stark was not paying attention to what she was doing.

In the midst of people milling about with drinks in their hands and through a haze of smoke, she was absently throwing sharp pieces of metal through the air. Frankly, from his view from outside the window, Gendry thought it was dangerous. Other people called it a game of darts.

He saw a large, drunken man wave three darts in front of Arya's face and laugh. He took a swig of beer from his mug and set it at the edge of a table behind him, then narrowed his eyes at the dart board. With a practiced eye he crouched forward, aimed, and threw the dart at the blinking target…

Gendry could tell from his reaction that it had not landed where he intended. For a second time he aimed, this time glaring at someone who bumped into him, but still he did not hit his intended mark. The third time, he actually shushed the people crowded around him, which only made it more humiliating for him when he, judging by the reaction, failed to hit the target where he wanted to.

Arya grinned widely, swaying slightly on her feet, and took her set of darts from her partner, and took another sip of whatever concoction she was drinking, and whipped her first dart at the target.

It wasn't a bulls eye, but he could tell from the reaction of her teammate that it had landed in a good place. Barely paying attention, she flung the next dart, and it landed right next to the first one. After seeking out another sip of her drink (Gendry thought this was ill-advised, since there were many people standing around without full body armor, and Arya looked like she couldn't see straight) she squinted and wrinkled her nose at the target. Someone clapped her on the back and she grinned at them, glanced back at the target, and, without seeming to know she had done it, once again whipped the dart at the board.

At once, lights flashed, and half of the mob around the electronic dart board cheered. A few guys pulled out their wallets and grimaced as they handed cash to their cheering friends.

Gendry decided this was a wonderful time to break in.

"Hey guys!" he called nonchalantly to the mob around his girlfriend as he walked through the door to the bar.

A few of the guys greeted him with fist bumps and nods from across the room, or an offer for a beer, which he declined.

'_I think I'll have enough trouble getting her home without being buzzed_," he thought, casually pushing through the crowd.

"Gen-dry!" he heard a familiar, faraway voice say. It seemed as if the object of his affections had noticed his entrance. Indeed she had, as she locked eyes on him and took several studied steps in his direction, frowning when someone bumped into her and sloshed her drink down her hand.

Once she reached him, she carefully raised her arm and, still holding the glass, began to lick the spill from her hand.

Grabbing a napkin, he held it out for her, but she shook her head.

"This is the best way to not be sticky!"

Knowing she didn't get like this very often, he humored her, but kept the napkin in his pocket, just in case.

It was the end of the semester, and Arya had just finished a class that she fondly referred to as "the eightieth circle of hell." Every day when she came home from that class, she had a new irate story about the professor, lab work, or the idiots in her class. These were usually the days he made dinner, or suggested getting a treat that night, or found some new movie to watch, or made some sort of plan to get her out of the house.

The worst part had been when she had to do a group project. The work itself led to a terrible three weeks, but did change Arya's view of the idiots in her class to other suffering souls. Arya had started hanging out with some of them outside of class, where they could blow off steam together and vent about their days. Arya did have an improved disposition once this started happening, which was good, but left him alone at home, which bothered him more than he liked to admit.

Tonight marked the end of their final, which Arya had invited him to, but he had been unable to attend because he had a clinical to attend. However, it had ended early, so he stopped by to see what was happening, and found a rather drunk Arya throwing sharp objects.

"I won at darts!" Arya proclaimed proudly as she intently maneuvered an ice cube around her glass.

"So I saw…have you ever played before?"

"No, but I am amazing. They go flying and they thwack against the board. I like it."

"Drunken zen, man," said one of the guys in the crowd. "I'm not sure if she could hit the target if she was sober."

"Drunk-en ZEN!" exclaimed the drunk girl beside him, who was now grasping his arm very tightly.

Gendry began to make some absent-minded small talk with the guy that turned out to be Arya's darts partner, when he felt an urgent tugging on his arm.

"Gen-dry," she said, eyes wide. "I would like another drink, but I do not think that I can get over there." Arya furrowed her brow at the bar. Apparently walking through people to get a drink was not something she thought she could handle.

He raised his eyebrows at her, and she responded by batting her eyes at him. "Just one more…pleasssse?"

"One more," he agreed, making sure she was firmly settled at the booth and that her darts partner, who seemed the most sober person of the bunch, would stay with her until he came back. He pushed through the swarm of people celebrating the end of finals week and managed to reach the bar, catching the bartender's eye.

"Glass of water and…something without alcohol that looks like a mixed drink – with a cherry," he ordered, shouting to make himself heard. A few minutes later, two glasses were shoved in his direction as the bartender tended to other customers that were actually ordering alcohol.

Upon returning to the table where he had left Arya, Gendry found that in his absence, someone had bought shots for the group.

Arya moved her head around until she saw Gendry. "This does not count as a drink," she said, deliberately enunciating each word as she carefully set down the shot glass. "A shot is not a drink."

Wordlessly he handed her the glass of water, which made her frown, but she drank anyway, and then held out her hand for her drink.

"Cherries!" she exclaimed happily, pulling out the purple plastic sword skewering the fruits and popping one in her mouth.

"Hey – they've got two dollar Long Islands across the street!" called one of the guys from Arya's class to the group. "Let's head over there!"

"You guys should come!" darts-partner-guy said, raising his nearly-empty mug, still managing to slop some over the rim.

"Would you like my cherry?" Arya interrupted, holding up her plastic sword to Gendry's nose. Obediently, he leaned over to her and pulled off the last fruit with this teeth.

"That's what she said!" called some other drunken college guy, laughing with his friends from the next table over.

With a flourish, Arya turned to the table and aimed her purple sword at the speaker. "You do not know what I said. You, sir, are a scoundrel!"

"Dude, she wants to stab you!"

After a moments' consideration on if he wanted to see this scene play out and deciding he did not, Gendry gently pushed his girlfriend's hand, purple plastic sword skewer and all, back down to the table.

"No!" she said insistently, pouting. "I have a sword, and I know how to use it!"

The other table started laughing, while Arya's group watched with interest. They had spent enough time with her to know that she had quite the mouth when she she wanted, and how hot-headed she could be.

It was time for the big guns.

Leaning forward once more, he whispered something in her ear, making her elbow him in the stomach. With a surprisingly coordinated gesture, considering her inebriated state, she grabbed his wrist. "We are going home."

Grinning, Gendry waved at Arya's friends as she dragged him from the table and towards the door. He was not concerned about the catcalls and off-color comments about cherries, since he knew Arya would lay down the law the next time she saw them.

After they passed by the windows to the bar and reached the wall, Arya let go of his wrist, pushed him back, and growled. "I told you not to call me pipsqueak anymore!"

Knowing it would be a grievous error to laugh in her face, Gendry took a few moments to compose himself before answering.

"You get oddly formal and medieval when you drink," he said offhandedly, staring seriously down at her.

"That is beside the point! I can use a sword and…and…do you want waffles?"

Without waiting for an answer, she turned and started carefully walking down the street with a determined look on her face.

Quickly catching up to her, Gendry put his arm securely around her waist and allowed her to lead the way to the waffle house.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**THREE MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER**

They didn't have an anniversary. Or maybe they had too many, he wasn't sure.

That was romantic, right? Ask someone to marry you on your anniversary, at a fancy dinner, all dressed up with a violin player walking around? That was what the movies led him to believe, at least.

There were several obstacles in his way. One, of course, was the anniversary situation. He could say it was the night of her graduation party, but that would ignore so many other important times in their lives – the "date" he had took her on, that time at the zoo, the day she confronted him about his disappearance, when she finally forgave him for rejecting her, that awkward dinner with her family, they day they met. There were too many events, too many memories, to elevate one to "anniversary" status and downgrade the others.

The second obstacle, as he saw it, was that Arya hated getting dressed up. The only time he saw photographic proof that it had happened (as he was certain he never saw it in real life during the years he had known her) was a picture on the wall of the Stark home. It was school picture day, and Arya's mother had dressed her youngest daughter in a matching skirt and blouse outfit with acorns embroidered on the collar. Even though she was only five, the disgust you could see in her eyes was palatable. It looked like young Arya had gotten her way, since the closest he had seen her get to "dressed up" in any other picture was a ribbon tied to the end of her braid in fifth grade. This had never happened again because Arya had cut her hair short at this point.

The third obstacle, of course, was money. He had saved up money for a ring, which was fully paid for, but there was rent, groceries, school…and going to a fancy restaurant just wasn't in the budget, unless he walked the five miles to school every day, and used the money he would spend on gas for an engagement dinner. However, winter was coming, and Gendry didn't particularly like the idea of walking to school through snowdrifts.

And what if she said no? Or thought they weren't ready to get married. Or didn't want to? They had just moved in together, was this too soon?

Before he knew it, he had psyched himself out, and gave up on the whole idea of a fancy dinner. It was a stupid idea anyway.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**NOW:**

Later that night, after a plate of waffles and, after some prodding, several glasses of water, Arya had fallen asleep.

Gendry was not so lucky.

He lay on his back, arms folded behind his head, staring at the bumps on the ceiling as he considered the heavily slumbering body beside him.

They had been living together for a year, and it had been wonderful. When he had finally been able to move in, he had been so exhausted from doing an entire load of coursework over six weeks that he had still didn't know how he had managed to drive there, much less remember the apartment number or how to walk. As he opened the door, Arya had gotten up so quickly from her desk that she knocked the chair down, then bolted across the apartment to him, almost knocking him over in her effort to get to him as quickly as humanly possible. She had not seen him since he had left the weekend he had spent there when she first moved in, and she clearly had made plans of what would happen once he arrived. However, his body did not respect her wishes and he fell asleep mid-sentence as they were sitting on the couch. The next morning he awoke to his things being put away and a note simply saying 'I love you,' and a muffin, and an empty apartment.

That afternoon, when Arya came back from class, her plans went off without a hitch.

This, and the fact he had hidden a small box in his car instead of with the rest of his belongings, made him extremely happy.

His original plan was to ask her to marry him that day, but she had an exam early the next day, and he felt it wasn't fair to her to distract her like that.

Also, he didn't have an idea of how to do it.

So he waited.

No matter what he thought, or how he planned, it never seemed to work out right, and so the ring box remained securely hidden where Arya would never think to look, and the thought of it was always in the back of his mind.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**FOUR MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER**

Arya turned her head to the left for the fifth time that afternoon.

"You're staring at me," she said once again, and paused the movie.

"No I'm not!" Gendry insisted, glancing her way. "I was just watching the movie."

"Then what just happened?"

"Venkman just said that everybody has three mortgages nowadays."

Arya frowned and looked at the screen. Perhaps she should have picked a better test than asking him what was currently happening in a movie they had watched together dozens of times.

"Bad example. But seriously, you keep on looking at me."

"No more than usual."

"This is definitely more than usual. There's something wrong."

"Arya, nothing's wrong."

Gendry couldn't quite look her in the eye, and that made her suspicions a certainty.

"You know it's stupid to hide things from me. It never ends well, so you should just go ahead and tell me!"

"There's nothing to tell!" he exclaimed, widening his eyes. "Just a normal day, watching Ghostbusters." Seeing the look in her eyes, he continued. "I'm glad I don't have any exams next week…I'm thinking about making popcorn…considering going for a run this afternoon…considering what would come to my mind if I had to think of nothing…that's really about it."

After a beat, he put on a huge smile. "See! Nothing wrong!"

After considering his demeanor for a minute, Arya, still wary, sat back and picked up the remote. Gendry was planning something, and she intended to figure out what.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**FIVE MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER**

Last month he had not been careful, and she had caught him contemplating. He wasn't sure how, but he had managed to avoid detection, and they had continued their weekend.

Anything he had thought of was just stupid, so he had given up for a while. The semester was over for both of them, and they were enjoying an abundance of free time. Currently, Gendry was taking advantage of the lack of need to study and had put on an action movie that they had both wanted to watch for months, but never found time for.

"Yippie-ka-yay!" Arya called out, pumping a fist into the air. Gendry laughed as he avoided her fist, settling back onto the couch and absently traced a line on her arm. "That feels nice," she commented, glancing up from where she was resting her head on his lap. She then got distracted by another shootout on the screen and turned back towards the television.

For a while they sat like that, watching as bad guys were taken out and the hero saved the day. After a while, when the protagonist was having a moment of realization about his estranged love interested, Arya suddenly sat up.

"I love you," she said seriously, staring him in the eye.

"I love you too," he replied, slightly confused at this sudden declaration.

After a slight pause, she nodded quickly, then turned and leaned against him, pulling his arms around her. Even after the credits began to roll, they did not move.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**NOW:**

Hours after Arya had fallen asleep, Gendry managed to follow her, but slept fitfully and woke suddenly when he heard a car starting outside.

Also startled by the noise, but not awakened, Arya rolled over, moaned something sleepily, and tossed a possessive arm over him. There were creases on the side of her face from the blankets she had been lying on, and a lock of hair fell apart from the rest and was balanced on the edge of her nose. She wrinkled her nose to try to displace it, but was unsuccessful. He would have tried to help, but his arms were pinned down by Arya's arm, and he thought she might wake up if he moved her. So, the lock of hair stayed.

Soon, it did not matter as she burrowed closer to him and nuzzled his shoulder region. Closing his eyes once more, he relaxed and decided that, if he could spend the rest of his life just like his, he would be happy.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**SIX MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER**

"I don't know _why_ I agreed to this," Arya muttered into her scarf as they trudged along the sidewalk.

"Agreed? You begged me to go fifteen minutes ago!" Gendry replied, his breath making a white cloud in front of his face.

"That was before I came outside," she said again, shoving her hands deeper into her pockets.

"Did you really want to wait until next week to pick it up?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Making a mock-angry face, Arya veered sharply into his path to push him to the side.

"Besides, I'm the one that's going to be carrying it,"

"I hope they don't get frozen," she mused.

"I don't think that ten minutes outside will hurt them."

Arya had been thrilled when she got home from classes that afternoon to find a note on the door from the postman, saying that there was a package waiting at the post office for her that was too big to fit into the designated package section of the mailbox. Even though the official note didn't state what the package was, Arya was certain that she knew. For years, her aunt Lysa sent a large box of oranges and grapefruit to her sister's family a little after Christmas. The first year that one of her nieces or nephews was living on their own, she sent a box to them as well, so she was certain this was what she was receiving.

She didn't know why she was so excited, because she could get fruit at the grocery store any time of the year, but something about opening the box and smelling the citrus brought back memories of eating grapefruit on Saturday mornings while watching cartoons.

Arya had hardly been able to wait the four hours until Gendry came back to the apartment, and had immediately told him to keep his coat on, since she needed him to go to the post office with her, since she knew she couldn't carry the box on her own. With a part-laugh, part-smile, he had dropped his bag on the floor and waited for her to put on her winter gear.

Her enthusiasm was severely dampened, however, when she walked outside and realized that a snowstorm had started while she was inside, beginning an essay and daydreaming of oranges. This was exacerbated by the fact that t hey had to park a block and half away from the post office because of the number of people that apparently had to send packages today.

When at last they reached the front door, Arya loosened her scarf and took off her gloves, and grasped the note from the door in her hand while she bobbed impatiently in line. Gendry stood behind her and smiled, then looked out the window, as it looked like they had quite a while to wait.

The sky was white and brilliantly bright, making him wince. With a sigh, he dismissed yet another plan. Skywriting during the winter would never work, since the writing would match the color of the sky, and he supposed the words "will you marry me?" written in the sky could cause some interesting conversations for other couples.

After a moment, he realized Arya was happily chattering about the treat she was eager to get, and he put his arm around her. "You're cold," she protested, but leaned into him anyway.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**SEVEN MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER**

Gendry was startled out of his concentration by the sound of a pen hitting the wall, and turned to Arya's desk behind him.

"I hate this class," she said as a way of explanation, without any apology in her voice.

With a small grin, he closed his book on the effect of drugs on the human body and how this would change physical treatment options and turned around.

"Want to take a break?"

"Yes!" she said emphatically, and dropped her book on the floor to add emphasis. She almost ran out of their study room to the living room.

"So wha-" he began, but was interrupted by his eager girlfriend.

"Let's go somewhere!" she exclaimed, heading to the set of hooks where they hung their winter coats.

"And do what?"

"Something...anything...I just need to go out and do something."

Gendry grinned. "Like get coffee?" He just managed dodge the hat that was flung in his direction.

"Let's go for a walk."

A few minutes later, they were walking around the block, glove and glove, in the softly falling snow. As they walked by a park, she tugged him towards the entrance, the immediately ran to a miraculously unblemished field of snow, and dropped down on her back, waving her arms and legs back and forth.

"What are you doing?"

"Making a snow angel," she replied, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

He looked at her blankly, and she responded by holding out her arms to be helped up. After she was on her feet again, she pulled him back a few steps.

"See," she pointed to the brushed out area she had just occupied. When he looked her her quizzically, she pushed him down onto the snow.

"You have to make sure you don't mess it up when you get up," she instructed.

With a bemused look in his eye, he deliberately put an elbow down in the snow.

"Why you little..." Arya said under her breath, then launched herself on top of him.

"That wasn't very nice," he said with a glimmer in his eye.

"What're you going to do about it?"

In response, he rolled her over and shifted himself on top of her. For a moment, he thought he saw something like anticipation cross over her face, but he dismissed it as a trick of light.

During his moment of distraction, he did not see her reach over and grab a handful of snow, so was surprised when he got a face full of it. Without bothering to wipe it off, he leaned down and kissed her, but soon decided that the potential for frostbite was not worth paying her back for being snowed in the face.

After brushing themselves off and getting up, they spent a few more minutes walking around the park. As they exited, Gendry took Arya's hand, and they walked in comfortable silence back home.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**EIGHT MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER**

"-And then he told us to read this entire book this weekend, and there's going to be a test on it on Monday!"

Arya finished ranting with an exasperated moan and flopped, face down, onto the couch.

"How long is is?" Gendry asked tentatively.

"Four hundred," she groaned into the pillow.

He picked up the offending book and flipped through it. "At least fifty pages are appendices." It was a small consolation, but the best he felt he could offer at this point.

"And," she continued, raising herself up on her forearms, "he said that the project that's forty percent of our grade is a _group_ project! _My_ grade is going to depend on _morons_!" With another noise of misery, she once again buried her face in the pillow.

At this point, he was fairly certain that nothing he could say would get Arya out of her funk, so decided he would take care feeding them tonight, even though it was technically her turn. Walking into the kitchen, he looked in the cupboards for inspiration, then decided inspiration was overrated, and started boiling water for spaghetti.

As he started heating the sauce, he heard a rustling from the couch, and his girlfriend's head popped up like a prairie dog's.

"Food?" she asked hopefully.

"Five minutes," he replied. With a slightly happier noise, she collapsed back on the couch.

Half an hour later, they were taking care of the dishes – he was washing, and she was drying. As he handed her a dripping plate, he took a breath and began to speak.

"So, about this book," he began, and Arya immediately clenched her jaw. "How about we make a deal. I have a lot of studying to do this weekend myself. Let's say, every time you finish a chapter, we take a study break together, and you'll get some sort of reward."

"This sounds like I'd be a dog in obedience school," she said accusingly.

He crossed a finger over his chest. "I promise I won't give you dog biscuits and pat you on the head."

"What would I get?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, if I tell you, that'll ruin the surprise!"

After staring at him with narrowed eyes for a few moments, she nodded her assent. "Do I get a prize to start me off?"

"Bring me your book," he said, grinning, "and we'll see."

With a grimace coming unbidden to her face, she walked over and picked up the hated book from the floor by the couch.

Flipping through once again, he saw that there were fifteen chapters, and the first one was fairly short.

"You have to put in at least a little effort, so you'll have to wait until you finish your first chapter."

With yet another sigh, she trudged to the couch, book in hand, and rummaged in her bag for a notebook and pen, and settled herself into the corner of the couch.

Smiling, Gendry put away the last of the cleaned and dried dishes and began to prepare for the first reward. It would have to be something small and quick, since Arya would likely be finished within the hour. With a sudden surge of inspiration, he went to their shared bookshelf in the study room and picked up one of his books from the prior semester, then settled himself at his desk for a bit of review.

Sure enough, in a little over half an hour, he heard the sound of papers shuffling and someone walking into the room. Without a word, Arya raised her eyebrows expectantly at him.

"Come with me," he said, rising out of the chair and extending his hand. She reached out and he grasped her hand, then led her to the bedroom. Confused yet intrigued, she followed him.

"Lay down on your stomach at the edge," he instructed, and rubbed his hands together.

Once she was in place, he pulled her arms down flat next to each other. She turned her head to the side to look at her.

"What are you planning on doing to me?"

"So, remember last semester, when I took that intro class to massage therapy? It wasn't all theory, I got some practical experience. I thought I'd practice a little on you since, if I know you at all, you've been carrying way too many books in your bag on this shoulder."

He then reached out to her right shoulder, and felt the muscles tighten.

"Don't think about anything, just relax."

With that, he began to rub the tense muscles in that area as he had just read in the book, and practiced months ago. He heard Arya make a far more pleased moan into the pillow as he worked, and he thought it was a good change from her earlier angry noises.

Several minutes later, after the problem muscled had loosened up, he slowly stopped rubbing, then sat on the bed beside her.

"Why did you stop?" she asked contentedly from her spot on the bed, pointedly not moving from her current position.

"At this point, too much more manipulation could do more harm than good, so you'll have to live with that," she said, putting a hand gently on her back.

With a distinct effort, she rolled to face him. "Does this mean I have to go back to work?"

"If you want another reward…yes."

With another sigh, this one far less angry, she walked back to her spot on the couch and settled in again. He followed her to the main room, then turned to the kitchen once again, and opened the freezer.

"What are you doing?" she asked with interest, eager to abandon her book.

"Getting ready," he said simply, gesturing for her to go back to what she was doing.

He moved things around the freezer for a bit, but waited until she had begun to read again and turned the page before he pulled out a bag of frozen green beans that had been sitting in the back of the freezer since they had moved in. Catelyn had fully stocked their cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer with food when she had help Arya move in. Early on, when he had finally joined her, he had tried to make a side dish for dinner. She had refused to eat it because she said she hated green beans, and didn't know why her mother had brought them in the first place. And so the bag had sat, partially used, shoved in the corner for months.

It was here he had decided was the perfect hiding place. Carefully shielding what he was doing with the freezer door, he opened the twist tie holding the bag closed and rummaged for the small Ziploc bag he had placed inside. Pulling it out, he removed the bag containing a small ring, and stashed it in his pocket.

'_Maybe the freezer wasn't the best choice...frozen gold is really cold_!' he thought to himself, making an effort not to make a noise as he adjusted to having a piece of frozen metal pressed against his thigh.

Knowing he had to have a reason for being in the freezer for this long, he shuffled through the contents once more and luckily found a carton of ice cream, and put it in the door to pull out easier later. Checking the refrigerator he found chocolate sauce. With the sprinkles in the cupboard he had seen earlier while pulling out noodles, they should have the makings for sundaes when Arya finished her next chapter.

Heading into the study room, he pulled the plastic bag out of his pocket and removed the ring, rubbing it between his hands to warm it up. After he was satisfied it wouldn't freeze his thigh this time, he put it back in his pocket. He decided he would keep it on him until Sunday, or whenever the book was done, and use that as his last "reward."

Pleased with how things were turning out, he picked up his notes from class today and headed out to the living room and settled himself on the other end of the couch. Sighing, he realized that he could hardly read what he had written, and would have to re-write everything, and picked up his pen.

They worked in silence for some time, until finally Arya dropped her notebook to the floor in disgust.

"Finished already?" he asked curiously, lowering his own pen.

"No," she said in disgust, standing up and stretching. "I just can't handle reading another word of this right now. I have other things I need to do this weekend, I'm going to work on my philosophy assignment for a while."

As he heard her settle in at her desk, Gendry sat down his own work and turned to a new page in his notebook, then began to jot down some more ideas for end-of-chapter rewards. After a few minutes, Arya popped her head into the living room.

"Why is there a wet plastic bag on your desk?" she asked, holding up the aforementioned item.

"I brought some carrots to school today, and I guess I forgot to throw the bag in the garbage," he lied quickly, hoping she wouldn't notice the feebleness of his excuse.

Eying him suspiciously, she deposited the bag in the garbage can and went back to the study room.

Feeling his heart beat faster, he resumed his list making, switching back to his notes when Arya eventually emerged and came back to her book on the couch.

Minutes later, she closed the book with finality.

"I'm done again," she said in a slightly pitiful voice.

For a few minutes, they scooped ice cream, drizzled toppings, and licked chocolate off of their fingers. After a few bites, Arya sat down her spoon and looked at him glumly.

"I shouldn't have stopped in the middle of the chapter."

"Why not?"

"I'm finding that this sucker is better read in big chunks, because the author is a jerk who doesn't know how to separate chapters, and everything is interconnected. If I'm going to stand a chance of making sense of this, I think I have to do this in big chunks."

"So…no study breaks?"

"Not like you're planning." Arya avoided his gaze and started stirring her ice cream.

"Hey," he said, touching her hand to halt its movement. "Whatever you need to do, you do. I'll still be right here when you're done."

After they finished their treat, Arya said she was going to finish the rest of her homework tonight, so that she could spend the rest of the weekend reading the book and digesting the information for the test she had to take on it. They spent the rest of the night in the study room. Every half hour or so, Arya would heave another big sigh and glare at the clock, then go back to work.

The next morning, her alarm went off at the disgusting hour of seven am and Arya climbed out of bed, quickly showered, and went straight to work. Gendry tried to check in on her and say hello when he himself work up, but she waved him away, so he busied himself in the living room watching TV with the volume turned down.

At lunchtime, he tried to get her to take a break, but she waved him away again. Instead, he made a sandwich and brought her some juice, leaving it at the side of her desk. An hour later, he checked back, but the sandwich was only half eaten, so he decided to leave it there for a while longer. Meanwhile, he retooled his proposal plan. Initially, he was going to build up romantic gestures culminating in the presentation of the ring, but that was obviously out. Slowly, a new plan began to form in his mind.

Around three, Arya finally emerged, holding her head and, having been sitting all day, was limping slightly. Without speaking, she stumbled over to the couch and fell onto it.

"How's it going?" he asked tentatively, not sure if she was capable of human communication.

"Got to a sentence where the author said it was a good stopping point…so I stopped," she mumbled, eyes closed.

Carefully, he removed the television remote from under Arya's back and turned off the screen. He felt she might want the droning in the background to be gone, at least for a while.

After ten minutes, she finally rolled over, then sat up and looked at him.

"I'm starving." Without further comment, she went straight to the refrigerator for food.

Gendry took this as a good sign, and that she may be able to hold on a conversation. Apparently Arya agreed, as she began to speak.

"I peeked ahead, and it looks like there's another good stopping point about a third of the way from the ending," she said, sniffing at a Tupperware container she found. "I'm going to get to that point tonight, and do the last part tomorrow morning. Then I can review everything, and I should be prepared."

"I take it you don't want to go for a walk tonight, then," he replied, getting himself a drink of water.

"By the time I'm done, it'll be really late, so…no."

He said he understood, then cleared out of the kitchen, because Arya looked ready to eat her hand, and he feared that if he stood in her way, she may start gnawing on him.

After shoveling food in her mouth and spending half an hour relaxing on the couch at Gendry's insistence, Arya returned to the study room, flipped to a fresh page of her notebook, and began reading again.

Just as he was beginning to get restless and he had decided to go on a walk on his own, the telephone rang. Not wanting to disturb Arya, he dashed to get it before it rang again.

"Hello," he said quietly into the receiver.

"Hello Gendry – it's Catelyn," Arya's mother said over the line. "Is Arya around?"

"She is, but she's in the middle of some homew-"

"I really need to speak with her," she insisted in an urgent tone, speaking over him. "Please put her on the line."

"Just a minute," he said, setting down the receiver. He faintly heard her say 'thank you' in the distance.

He paused at the door and spent a second watching Arya work. Her right foot swung back and forth under her chair as she read, and he could see the side of her hand was smudged with blue ink.

"Arya," he called quietly, but she didn't seem to know he was there.

"Arya," he tried again, more loudly this time. Still no response.

Fearing the worst, he crossed the room and put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump and kick the bottom of her desk.

He could tell she was annoyed with him before she even began to speak.

"Gendry, I told you I need to concentrate!" she exclaimed, glaring at him.

"I know…but your mom's on the phone, and it sounds like something important is going on."

Groaning angrily, she dropped her pen and scooted back from the desk, then strode out of the room and picked up the receiver. He could hear her speaking with her mother, and occasionally muttering responses. Not wanting to interrupt anymore, he took a closer look at the open page of the book. It looked like half the words on the page were pushing twenty letters, and it took him two tries to read a sentence and derive any meaning from it. He knew he didn't stand much of a chance, since this was such an in-depth book in something he had never studied, but he didn't know how Arya derived any meaning from it.

A few minutes later, Arya put the phone back on the hook and walked back into the room, looking haggard.

"It seems," she began, with a forced smile on her face to alleviate some of her anger at being interrupted, "that my aunt Lysa is crazy. Not normal crazy, like I've told you, but 'pushing the plumber out of the window of her thirty-story walk-up because she thought he was going to rape and murder her' crazy. The plumber's family, of course, is suing, and I'm supposed to serve as a "character witness" for her. So, I have to go all the way back to mom's with my brothers and sisters to talk to the lawyer next week."

Turning, she began to slowly beat her head on the door frame. Gendry quickly crossed the room to stop her, so she leaned into him and started beating her head on his chest. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it was much better than the door frame.

"If one more thing happens this semester – good or bad – I think I'm going to snap," she said woefully into his shirt. "This class is hell, and I can't do that on top of stupid real life stuff."

He pulled her closer and pressed her head closer to his chest. "You'll get through this. I'm going to do everything I can to keep things running smoothly for you, and at the end of the semester, you don't have to worry about it anymore."

They stood there for a few minutes, immobile in the middle of the room, before Arya finally pulled away.

"Any chance of another massage before I go back to work?" she asked hopefully, looking up at him.

As if he would deny her anything.

With a nod, she went to the bedroom and laid down on her stomach, and he began to rub her back. Briefly he tapped his pocket, feeling the small circle inside, and decided to find a new hiding place until the time was better. His new task was to make life as unobtrusive as possible.

Slowly, he began to feel the tenseness of Arya's muscles melt away, and she slowly drifted off to sleep. Making a note of the time, he decided to give her twenty minutes to rest, then wake her up, or else she would be upset at having lost so much time tonight.

The things he did for love.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**NOW:**

Arya woke the next morning feeling better than she thought she would, considering the amount of alcohol she had consumed the previous night. She supposed that was largely in part to Gendry's insistence she drink lots of water, eat something, and then have some more water.

Rolling over, she tore off the previous day's sheet on her page-a-day calendar, and smiled at the new word that was revealed.

Quietly, she got up and walked to the kitchen and began to make hot chocolate, partially to have something tasty to drink, and partially to mentally prepare herself.

After a few minutes, spent heating water and opening windows to let in the glorious brightness of a day not shadowed by work from her hell class, she had two steaming mugs in her hand, and pushed open the door to the bedroom.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**TEN MONTHS AFTER MOVING IN TOGETHER:**

With a sudden movement he was not expecting, Arya threw her pen across the room, and it hit the window with a _ping_.

"You're making a habit of this," Gendry said, grinning at her over the book she was supporting with her knees. The walls around her desk were littered with small black and blue marks from the pens she had been throwing this semester, and he did not look forward to the day when they would have to clean them off.

"I'm done for tonight," she announced, closing the book and setting it down with finality.

"But you said that you needed to finish up those questions before you had your group work time tomorrow."

"Everyone else has missed a few problems every time we've met. They can handle my not having finished everything just this once." She paused and then switched off her desk lamp. "I want to have a normal night with you."

"I think that sounds like a great idea," he agreed, and shut his own book. Truthfully, he had only been going through his notes again so he could be in the same room as Arya, and not because he wasn't confident with the material. He had actually rearranged his class schedule so he could drive down every other Friday afternoon to go and visit Catelyn, and help out with some things around the house, since she was spending as much time her sister as she could, given her recent episode. He hadn't told Arya about it, since she would feel guilty that she hadn't been doing anything herself, but knew that if she were to worry about her mother more, she would have an even worse time this semester.

Putting it out his mind, he walked out to the living room with Arya, then stopped and looked at her.

"What's a normal night?"

She stopped as well, then started laughing. "Actually…a normal night nowadays is spending all night on homework and studying, then collapsing into bed…but that's kind of what I'm trying to avoid…"

"So…what abnormal things do you want to do?"

"When you phrase it like that, it just sounds weird," she said, glancing around for inspiration. "I want to go outside."

Minutes later, clad in unzipped windbreakers, they strolled to the park near to the apartment, chatting about anything but their classes. Arya was currently relating the story of how she had almost been run over by a guy on a skateboard earlier that week.

"So I look up, and it's this blond guy with hair in dreadlocks standing over me, he apologizes, helps me up, and then boards off again." Raising her right hand to her nose, she gave it a smell. "And it still smells like patchouli!"

"Wait…when was this again?"

"Last week Wednesday."

"Do you even bathe?"

Giggling, she punched him on the shoulder. "You know very well I do!"

"I don't know, if you can still smell it on you, I'm not sure I want to hold your hand anymore…"

When he pretended to try to get away, she just pulled him closer and grabbed him around his waist. "You're not going anywhere."

He tilted his head down to her upturned face and kissed her. "Well, I guess I'll just have to stay with you, then."

"Forever?" she asked seriously, pulling back a bit.

"If you'll have me."

With a quiet smile on her face, she pulled him close once again, and didn't let him go for a long time.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**NOW:**

Gendry growled into his pillow as he buried his face further into it. He could hear vague noises coming from the kitchen from his amazingly awake girlfriend. He knew his continued desire to sleep was his own doing, since he had been up late last night, but he wanted something convenient to blame, and that something was in the kitchen making hot chocolate, by the smell of it.

As the door opened and light streamed in from the open window in the living room, he pulled the blankets over his head to seal out the light.

"Wake up, sleepy head!" she said softly, trying to pull back the covers.

Giving up quickly on that pursuit, she set both mugs of hot chocolate on his bedside table and hopped onto the bed next to him.

"Gendry," she said in a slightly pouty voice. "I want to go somewhere with you…it's such a beautiful day, and I don't have to come back and spend the rest of the day on another project, or essay, or lab, or whatever for the eightieth circle of hell, and I want to have a good day with you!"

"'S too early," he mumbled through the covers.

"But I want to do something…special today."

"There's all day for that," he responded, still muffled by the sheets covering his face.

"But I kinda want to do it right now," she said almost uncertainly.

Knowing he would have no option but to comply, he regretfully removed the covers from over his head and squinted at her in the bright light streaming through the door. "What would you like to do?"

She lowered herself down until she was lying next to him, and rolled on her side so they were eye to eye.

"I love you," she said simply.

"I love you too, he replied, blinking sleepily at her.

"And I want to do something new today."

"You had mentioned that."

She stared at him for a second, then continued.

"Today I think…that we should get engaged."

He was certainly awake now.

Sitting up straight, he stared at her for a moment, then got out of bed and opened the closet door.

"Gendry," she said uncertainly, sitting up on the bed.

He did not respond, instead reaching up to the top shelf of their closet for a large box, and pulled it down, then set it on the bed and sat beside it.

Opening it, he pulled out several boxes of trading cards he had collected over the years, stored in plastic boxes. Finally he found a bright red box, opened it, and dumped out the contents. A deck of cards in plastic protector sleeves fell out, as well as yet another smaller box inside that bore the label 'dice.' This too he dumped on the bed, and instead of dice, a piece of cloth slid out. He carefully unfolded it and slid something small into his right hand.

Clutching his hand over the item he had picked up, he looked at Arya, who seemed to have frozen in place.

"Well, I could never quite find a way to do it myself…" Extending his hand, he opened it to show her the item he had placed in his palm.

Slowly, she extended her own hand and picked up the object, and saw it was a ring. It was a thin white gold band, with a small emerald embedded in it. A small infinity symbol was engraved on either side of the stone.

"I think that's a great idea," he said, gently picking up the ring from her hand, holding it up to her left hand.

With far less apprehension than and far more excitement, she allowed him to slip the ring on her finger, then threw herself on top of him, and smothered him with kisses.

He saw no reason to protest.

XXXXX-XXXXX

**LATE THAT NIGHT:**

Eventually, then ended up lying on the couch together, talking, and Gendry was the big spoon.

"I've been trying to ask you for months," he admitted as he folded his arm around her, and she snuggled closer.

"Oh, you mean since the end of last semester?" she asked. He didn't even have to see her face to know she had a devilish grin on her face.

"How did you know?"

"You started acting really strange around then….and every time I saw my mother, the first thing she would do is check out my left hand…and you got really weird whenever I went into the freezer – did you have it in the freezer?"

He chuckled. "In the green beans….I washed it."

"Good."

"Why can't you be normal, and have put it in your sock drawer?"

"Too cliché…it was also hidden behind the books in the bookshelf for a while…and in my suitcase…and that weird pocket on the side of the couch…and for a brief time in my book bag, but that made me too nervous."

"You think too much."

"And you didn't go searching though my sock drawer?"

"Well…" she said guiltily.

"So I was justified!" He kissed her neck gently to show her he wasn't mad.

"Where did you find this?" Arya asked, admiring the ring on her hand.

"I designed it…had a hell of a time telling the woman at the jewelry store that you wouldn't want a huge diamond."

She giggled at how flustered he must have been. "You were absolutely right."

For a few minutes, they lay in silence, listening to the crickets chirp outside.

"Why today?" he asked, slowly stroking her finger.

She glanced into the bedroom at the page-a-day calendar sitting on her bedside table.

"It just felt right," she said simply, smiling as she remembered how she felt when she tore off the page and saw her word for the day.

Eternal.

She liked the sound of that.

_fin_

**Author's Notes: Gendry and Arya were watching Ghostbusters, mainly because I feel there are no obscure lines from that movie. Basically, I'm trying to disprove the first episode of **_**How I Met Your Mother**_**.**

**There is a version in my head of the "Arya reading book for her hell class/Gendry gives her rewards for getting through each chapter" that ends up with far less Lysa going crazy and pushing a man out the window leading to yet another aborted proposal attempt and far more sex. Maybe one day I'll write it as a one-shot.**

**There's also fun in Gendry picking out a ring.**

**This chapter was originally much shorter, but I felt that Gendry would keep on getting tripped up in small details and worrying about finding the "perfect" moment, and kind of failing at closing the deal, so he would take FOREVER to propose, and I just had to write some of those moments. I also felt like Arya would pick up on it pretty quick, but decide to try to preserve his masculinity and let him do things on his own time, then get impatient and just do it herself.**

**If you read closely, you can find a small callback to phase two at the end of this chapter. **

**Thank you once again to everyone that has read this. Your encouragement has been amazing, and made this such a great process. I'm really enjoying writing again, and looking forward to a couple of things I have in mind. **

**PS: Still don't own this, in case you're wondering.**


	8. Missing Scene Phase IV - Sansa's Problem

**Missing Scene from Phase 4 – Haven: Sansa's Problem**

**In which Sansa has a problem when she first goes off to college, and has to solve it without anyone finding out.**

**XXX**

_Margarey tripped over the box of tampons her roommate had tossed to the side. "Remember in the beginning of the year, that big box of these that popped up in the bathroom? I didn't know you used these, I thought you used-"_

_"They're from my mom," Sansa said, shoving the offending box under the futon and averting her eyes._

**XXX**

Sansa's family had just left, and, though she knew she would miss them, she was glad to finally be alone.

Well, except for her roommate, who was also unpacking, occasionally asking her opinion on where to place a lamp, or a poster.

"I think we can stack these and make kind of, you know, some shelves or something," Sansa commented, gesturing to a pile of computer paper boxes she had gotten from the school.

"That's a great idea! I have some spare fabric, I think, so we can decorate it..." Mags mused, digging through a bag near her bed.

Sansa smiled and tossed another box on the pile. She wasn't certain how much she could handle unpacking tonight, and figuring she should get to know the person she would be living with, she was contemplating asking Mags if she wanted to quit unpacking and watch a movie or something. However, it looked like she was very involved in getting everything organized and creating the shelf structure tonight.

Tucking her hair once again behind her ear, she began to look in the next box for a scarf to hold her hair back as she worked. Ripping tape off of the next box, she found that the contents were a care package her mother had put together. On the top was a plastic container with her favorite cookies – lemon with a chocolate kiss inside, and a note from her mother. There was also a necklace with a graduation mortarboard and rolled diploma dangling from it, and a framed picture of her family.

Biting her lip, Sansa got up and placed the picture on her desk, looking fondly at her father, immortalized on film. Rickon was clinging to his arm, Robb looked bored, and Arya appeared to be reaching up to take a bow out of her hair. After offering a cookie to Mags, she sat down with her own cookie to investigate the rest of the box.

Reaching in, she found a bag of socks with various animals on them, a container of garbage bags, a mufti-colored pack of pens, several air fresheners, several boxes of her favorite granola bars, a box of light bulbs, some new slippers, a huge bottle of lotion, a pack of highlighters, a deck of cards, a box of paperclips, face wash, a pack of washcloths, and a large unmarked box. Sansa carefully set down each item in a pile as she pulled it out, depending on where it would end up in her room, and left the washcloths with the "bathroom things" pile, then reached for the unmarked box.

Unsure, she reached in and opened the box, still inside the larger care package, then quickly shut it again, glad she hadn't pulled it out.

Glancing backwards, she saw that Mags was focused completely on the task at hand, and was busily gluing boxes together and draping different fabrics on the stack to see what patterns looked best together. Flushing slightly, Sansa pulled the large box out and shoved it in the bottom of her closet, then tossed a bag on top of it to hide it.

Why, oh why, had her mother bought her an economy-sized box of generic tampons?

XXXXX-XXXXX

Two months later, Sansa was at her wits end as to what to do with the hulking box taking up precious space in her closet. She had been unable to set up her shoe rack because she didn't have the floor space, and she was tired of putting her shoes in a pile on the floor.

Something had to be done.

She had contemplated throwing the offensive tampons out, but that seemed like such a waste. When her first period came when she was at school, she had tried to use her mother's gift to her, but they were so comfortable she went out and bought a box of her preferred brand, and vowed to do so from now on.

That still left the problem of a large box of feminine hygiene products in her closet.

Finally, when Mags was gone for the weekend, Sansa made her move.

She made a sign, carefully disguising her handwriting. Then, at two thirty, she sneaked out of her room, large white box of generic tampons under her arm, and tiptoed to the bathroom. Glancing inside to make sure there was no one there, she set the box on the shelf above the sinks and affixed the sign she had made earlier to the box.

Standing back, she admired her handiwork.

"FREE TAMPONS!" the sign proclaimed. "TAKE WHATEVER YOU NEED!"

Now, as long as she could get to her room without being spotted, she should be rid of her problem.

As she closed the door to her room, Sansa leaned against the door and exhaled gratefully, then started to assemble her shoe rack.

Things suddenly looked much brighter.

**Author's Note: So, I had mentioned before that there were several missing scenes/outtakes/alternate scenes to this story, that really didn't fit in. Well, I figured I would just go ahead and write them and put them in here, since they really wouldn't make sense on their own! Also, I've found that the other stuff I've been writing lately has been a little darker, and I wanted something a bit fluffier to balance it out.**

**Don't worry, Gendry and Arya will still very much feature in these. I've just had this Sansa moment in my head for weeks, and I really wanted to write it and get it out. These won't be in any particular order, but will just appear as I decide which one sounds most fun to write!**


	9. Missing Moment Phase II - Arya's Gift

**Missing Moment from Phase 2 – Abandon: Arya's Gift**

**In which Arya's first Christmas without her father is terrible, but gets better.**

**XXX**

_Almost reverently, she had removed the page, taking care not to tear off a corner. Her fingers swept over the note, feeling the depressions where the pen had written. This was her gift from her father, something for her and her alone. _

**XXX**

Christmas was a quiet affair that year.

The Stark family sat quietly in the living room, which was unadorned by decorations. Ned Stark had always been the one to set up the tree, got the whole family to decorate, and put the stupid plastic candy cane sculptures up on the pathway to the front door from the street. This year, however, he wasn't there to do anything, and neither his widow or children found the urge to take up this task in his stead.

Catelyn, however, had insisted on exchanging gifts on Christmas night and being together as a family.

Sansa, of course, had put forth the most effort into the night, going so far as to put on a festive sweater and making cookies, although she couldn't seem to take a bite; instead, she sat on the couch pulling lint off of her sweater. An awkward silence hung over the room as everyone pointedly did not mention Ned, and looked for an excuse to go upstairs.

Arya, in particular, wanted to go back to her room. Carouse was the word of the day, with a simple '_Merry Christmas!_' written in her father's handwriting on the page. Arya felt a peculiar wave of sadness come over. Usually she enjoyed the days she found notes from her father, but knew this was one of the last ones.

After what seemed like an eternity, Catelyn gently said she was going to clean up and go to bed, which the Stark children knew was her way of telling them she wanted some time alone.

As Arya followed Bran up the stairs, she glanced back and saw her mother staring out the window as the snow blew across the sky.

Finally, she reached the door to her room and closed it softly behind her, happy to be alone and have her own memories without her mother prying and asking questions.

She sat down at her desk and reached for the calendar, now thin in her hands, but paused before her hands reached it. There was a small wrapped box with a perfectly-tied bow on top of it.

This was her mother's handiwork. No one else in her family bothered wrapping anything that well, and certainly none of them could tie a bow evenly. In fact, Sansa was the only one who wanted to learn.

Curious, she pulled the ribbon off and carefully peeled back the wrapping paper, wondering what her mother would have gotten her she didn't want to present in front of the rest of the family.

In her hands she revealed the contents of the box, and saw that it was a word-a-day calendar for next year. Suddenly, Arya felt an uncomfortable lump form in her throat, and hurriedly set down the gift, and stared at the note from her father.

With a sudden surge of determination, she pushed back her chair and went back downstairs, where she saw her mother paging through a photo album.

"Arya?" she asked, setting down the book on the couch and standing up.

Without a word, Arya crossed the room and wrapped her arms around her mother, who smoothed down her hair and kissed her on the head.

Shortly after, Arya pulled back, gave her mother a small smile, and did not mention she tears she saw forming in her mother's eyes. Neither of them spoke as Arya climbed the stairs again.

Neither of them had to.

**Author's Note: So...yeah...that whole fluffier thing...apparently I had to get out one more sad moment before I got to some of the more fun stuff again. This scene isn't essential by any means, but it feels very important to me that Arya and her mother have a small moment.**

**Also, I _swear_ that most of the rest of these are more along the lines of Sansa and the tampons instead of Arya and sad father moments. **


	10. Missing Scene Phase VII - The Dilemma

**Missing Scene from Phase 7 – Drugs: Gendry's Dilemma **

**In which Gendry thought he made the most important decision, but realizes he has a far greater one ahead of him.**

**XXX**

_"Where did you find this?" Arya asked, admiring the ring on her hand._

_"I designed it…had a hell of a time telling the woman at the jewelry store that you wouldn't want a huge diamond."_

_She giggled at how flustered he must have been. "You were absolutely right."_

**XXX**

Gendry sat nervously in his car after he turned off the ignition and wiped his hands on his khaki pants and looked for a wrapper to spit his gum into. Taking a deep breath, he checked his reflection in the rear-view mirror and straightened the collar on his shirt.

Then, mildly cursing himself for worrying so much about his appearance, yet still feeling kind of justified in his decision, he opened the car door and locked it behind him, and walked to the front door of the jewelry shop.

Once he reached the door, he stopped again and took another deep breath. He was certain that he wanted to marry Arya, but the part leading up to that...that was making him nervous.

Immediately upon opening the door, he felt justified in his decision to dress up for this. He knew he could have gone to one of the jewelry stores in the mall, but that felt very open and exposed, and he wanted to have some discretion. Also, he had heard that this particular store had an in-house designer, in case he couldn't find what he was looking for and wanted to have something special made. However, that didn't keep him from feeling very overwhelmed and out of place.

As he stepped up to the first glass case and looked down, he felt like he would be blinded by the shine of the stones and metals inside, and swallowed nervously. He had no idea where to start.

"How can I help you today?" Gendry jumped slightly as he heard a voice behind him. Turning he saw an elegantly-dressed older woman wearing several pieces of very expensive jewelry.

"I-" Gendry paused and cleared his throat when his first syllable came out as a squeak. "I wanted to look at-"

"Engagement rings?" the older woman said expectantly, smiling gently and gesturing for him to follow her. "You stopped before you opened the door and you look like a deer caught in the headlights. Classic signs."

As he followed the woman past several display cases, he was glad that he didn't have to figure out how to ask for help, but slightly disappointed that he had been so obvious.

"Now, what is your name?" the woman asked as pointed towards a chair in front of a low display case, and walked around herself.

"Gendry," he replied, sitting down and awkwardly folding his hands on his lap.

"I'm Miriam," she responded as she made her way to the other side of the display and sat on her own chair and primly pulled herself up to the glass. "I am going to help you pick out a ring that your intended will love." 

"Great," Gendry said thankfully.

"Now, what did you have in mind?" she asked, and poised a fountain pen over a pad of embossed cream colored paper, ready to take notes.

It was at this moment that Gendry realized how woefully unprepared he was for this task. "I'm not sure," he said slowly in the general direction of his hands.

"My my, we do have our work cut out for ourselves, don't we?" Miriam said, then pulled out a key and opened the case between them, then pulled out a tray with several rows of rings and set it before him. "How big of a diamond are we looking for?"

"Um..."he replied nervously.

"Let me explain to you about diamonds, so you can make an informed decision. Now, there are four C's that determine the quality of a diamond..."

For several minutes, Gendry sat in stunned silence, nodding occasionally as Miriam explained details about gemstones he had never cared about, and grew increasingly worried as she continued. He had been saving up for this, and was willing to spend as much as was necessary to get the perfect ring for Arya...but the more he thought of it, the more he realized that he had never seen Arya wearing a diamond...or even mentioning wanting one.

"Now, with this particular setting," Miriam said, holding up a ring from the tray, "you can see how the light comes in the side and makes everything sparkle." She paused for a moment and held the ring out to him, and he made what he hoped were appropriate appreciative noises.

"However, with this one," she continued, reaching for another ring, "you can-"

"I'm not sure that she would want something that...sticks out that much," he said, gesturing to the pronged rings before him.

"Once actual diamond is set in the ring, it doesn't stick out nearly as much," she reassured him.

"I just feel like she may not like that," he said, suddenly remembering that Arya had mentioned several times several times that the rings Sansa wore snagged on her hair, clothing, and furniture, and how she never wanted to have to deal with that. "Is there maybe some other setting that doesn't...snag on things?"

He saw the ghost of a frown cross over the older woman's face, but it disappeared just as quickly. She placed the tray back into the display cased and pulled out a much smaller case.

"We do have a few settings like this," she stated, holding up another specimen, "where the band wraps around the stone. "It doesn't let the diamond glitter as much as it could,"she continued dismissively.

Gendry reached out and plucked out one of the sample rings from the tray, and tried to imagine it on Arya's hand, mentally comparing it to the rest of her jewelry.

With his heart sinking, he remembered her collection – a few necklaces and sets of earrings from her family, and a mood ring band that she occasionally wore. Nothing as ornate as this, with detailed scroll-work down the sides and smaller stones embedded here and there.

"Arya," he began, trying to explain his predicament, "she doesn't wear jewelry that often, and she really doesn't have anything that fancy."

"All the more reason to get her something lovely!" Miriam exclaimed, pulling out a delicately engraved ring, pointing out the size of the diamond that could be set in place, and the details in the design.

He bit his lip and contemplated. He felt like Arya wouldn't actually like anything that he had been shown that day, and he was afraid she would laugh in his face...or say no.

Cursing his lack of research, he looked frantically over the display rings, looking for something – anything – that he could imagine her wearing. '_Why did I think that going in blind was a good plan_?' he asked himself, growing more nervous by the second. '_She doesn't like anything this...flashy_.'

"You could also get something like this," he heard as another ring was held in front of his eyes. "You can still see a fair part of the stone-"

"I think she would want something more simple," he interrupted, trying to sound confident.

Pursing her lips, she picked up a smaller ring, "This is the most basic ring we have," the older woman said disparagingly. "But I do believe that this isn't what you're looking for. An engagement ring must make a statement, it has to be something she will wear with price for the rest of her life. You don't want to downsize something this important. I can help you find the biggest diamond for the best price."

"No diamond," he said firmly, hoping he was making the right decision. "That's not her."

With a stern raise of her eyebrow, she spoke again. "Now, Gendry, every woman wants a big diamond when she gets proposed to."

"Not Arya," she replied with more confidence. "She wants something that matches her – that makes her own statement."

For several seconds, she stared at him down the bridge of her nose. "Very well," she finally said. "Excuse me for a moment."

Without another word, she walked to the back of the store and went through a doorway and disappeared through it. Gendry sat nervously on his chair, wondering what she was doing. He felt like he was in the beginning of some sort of terrible candid camera situation.

Just as he was considering getting up and walking out, Miriam returned with a man in a t-shirt and jeans following her.

"Hi Gendry, I'm Mike," he introduced himself, extending his hand to shake Gendry's. "I understand you want something unique for your lady friend?"

"Yes," he replied, smiling.

"Then come over here with me," Mike said, leading him to a small table in the back corner of the room. "Now, what is your girl like?"

Smiling at this method of finding a ring for Arya, Gendry explained a little about Arya, and, half an hour later, he held in his hand a sketch with some notes on it.

"That's perfect," he said, gazing down at the drawing. There were notes on the type of stone to embed, how wide the band was, and the type of gold to be used. The sketch was simple, slightly smudged where he had debated between a heart on either side or an infinity sign, but looking exactly like something he could see Arya wearing.

"Then that's what I'll make," Mike replied. "It will take up to a month to complete, but I think I should have enough time to finish it sooner. But I'm sure she's going to love it."

Gendry grinned at this"As long as I have it in a month and a half, I'm happy. I have plans for it around that time.

"Will do," the other man chuckled, and handed Gendry the payment schedule they had agreed on. "I'll give you a call as soon as you can pick it up."

"Thank you, Mike," he said, shaking his hand once again.

Gendry smiled as he walked inside, ignoring the disapproving glance he received from Miriam as she attended to another customer who had entered the store. He was positive he had made the right decision.

**Author's Notes: So, just in case you forgot, these characters are still not mine.**

**Now I'm getting to the not depressing moments, and to the more fun times. Gendry, as usual, didn't quite have an action plan, so he was kind of lost, but eventually remembered Arya and what she would want him to do. I really liked the idea of him coming to a moment of realization in the midst of all this jewelry.**

**I have a couple more missing/alternate scenes that I couldn't work in before, and I'm pretty excited to write them!**

**Thank you again to everyone that is still following this and going along with all the missing moments, even if the plot is technically done. I really appreciate it!**


	11. Missing Perspective Phase II - Gendry

**Missing Perspective from Phase 2 – Abandon: Gendry's Side**

**In which Gendry reveals his part in Sansa's dating life.**

**XXX**

_Gendry chose this moment to glace up and caught her eye. "Hi pipsqueak!" he called, raising his hand and grinning. Arya rolled her eyes and slammed the window closed in retaliation. _

**XXX**

Gendry paused for a moment as the window above his head abruptly closed, and the stoic girl who had closed it turned away. Confused, he paused for a moment, waiting for her to perhaps come back to the window to wave to him, but there wasn't any movement from inside.

After a moment, he rang the doorbell, and made a note to go say 'hi' later that evening as Robb opened the door and ushered him in the entryway.

"Hey," Robb said, nodding at him and raising an eyebrow. "You talked to him?"

"Yup, it's all set."

After taking a moment to glance behind his shoulder, Robb turned and raised his voice, yelling up the stairs. "Sansa! If you don't get down here in thirty seconds, we're leaving without you!"

"That's quite a time limit," Gendry commented drolly.

"Hey, we're the ones helping her, she shouldn't make us wait."

He heard the noise of things being tossed around from the floor above, and Robb sighed in annoyance.

"Sansa!" he called again, patting his pocket to make sure he had his house keys.

Then he heard the padding of feet coming down the stairs, the owner of said feet giggling as she made her way to the ground floor, a pair of tall shiny shoes dangling from her fingers. As the redhead reached the entryway, she bent down and slipped one shoe on.

"Let's go," Robb said, reaching his hand out for the door.

"Robb!" Sansa complained, stumbling as she put her shoe-clad foot to the ground. "Give me a minute to put my shoes on!" The effect was lessened by the grin on her face.

Without another word, Robb opened the door. Not wanting to get in the middle of a sibling argument, Gendry followed suit and stepped onto the porch, twirling his keyring around his finger.

"Just give me a second!" Sansa said, grabbing Gendry's arm as she tottered on one foot, pulling the second shoe on. She grinned at him in thanks and sashayed to the car, heading immediately to the passenger door.

"I told you, I get shotgun this time!" Robb called to his sister, warming up now that they were actually out of the house.

"Girls always get the front seat. It's a rule!" she said gleefully, looking to Gendry for approval.

Gendry grinned at Robb and stepped to the car door and jiggled the handle. He was the only one that could open the door, and Sansa would soon enough be off on her own, so Robb could have all the time in the front seat he wanted after that point. With a small flourish, he muttered "mi'lady" and gestured for the eldest Stark sister to get in the car.

With a sigh, Robb slid into the back seat, and Sansa pulled down the sun visor to check her appearance in the mirror. Knowing Robb wouldn't be comfortable otherwise, Gendry quickly walked around the car before he got behind the wheel and made a point to check the mirrors. He could feel his friend relax behind him as he went through the precautions.

"Since it's a school night, Mom's going to get all worried if we're not back by nine," Robb said pointedly to Sansa.

"I'll be on time," said, glancing at her brothers' reflection in the small mirror.

"Like you were on time just now?"

"That was Arya's fault!" she explained, slipping her tube of lip gloss back into her purse.

Judging that he could now safely enter the conversation, Gendry interjected. "And how's that?"

The redhead rolled her eyes in exasperation. "She's stealing my clothes! All of a sudden, things are going missing, and she's been acting so _weird_ lately!"

"That doesn't sound like her."

"Um...Sans?" Robb said quietly from the backseat.

"What now?"

"It's not Arya."

With a frown on her face, Sansa turned to the backseat. "Who else could it be? I don't think my new miniskirt would fit you, and I really don't see Bran being into wearing my clothes."

"And you're saying I would be?"

"Well, the only reasonable explanation is Arya," she said with an air of finality, deciding to ignore Robb's previous statement.

Gendry laughed quietly to himself as he turned to a new radio station.

"It's Mom," Robb continued, deciding to ignore his sisters' statement that he wore women's clothing.

"Mom doesn't wear things like that, she wears mom jeans and fuzzy sweaters."

Robb let a beat of conversation pass, waiting for his sister to catch on. "And you think she approves of you wearing that miniskirt?"

"But..."

"I saw her walking out of your room with a basket of clothes and an angry expression on her face last week."

"Oh," she responded in a small voice.

A moment later, Gendry pulled to a stop. "See you at quarter to nine?" he said to Sansa, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah..." she said quietly, reaching for the door handle.

"Leave the door open for me!" Robb asked as he scooted out of his own door. Sansa complied, and smoothed down her shirt as she stood, looking around the people milling around the building.

"Joffrey!" she called happily, waving to a blond figure in the distance.

Robb slid into the now-vacant passenger seat and turned to Gendry. "He's here tonight, right?"

"Right there," Gendry replied, pointing to a figure in a security uniform. "Same as always, and he'll keep an eye on them."

Robb frowned slightly.

"But there won't be an reason to," Gendry continued reassuringly.

Relaxing slightly, Robb leaned back and groaned. "Having sisters is exhausting."

Gendry nodded in agreement, and decided that being friends with a guy with sisters was even more exhausting.

Somehow, he had ended up being approached by Robb and Sansa, independent of each other, asking for his assistance with the other. Robb, of course, didn't want his sister to date someone he didn't approve over (which was basically everyone) and Sansa wanted his help in convincing Robb that he could stop being so overprotective and let her date. It took several weeks, and a bargain with his cousin, who was a security guard at the local skate park, to come to an agreement, one that Sansa knew little about.

"She really thought Arya was stealing her clothes?" Gendry scoffed as he pulled away.

"Ugh, no more sister talk, please," Robb responded, adjusting the seat back so he would have more legroom.

With a grin, Gendry pushed thoughts of the Stark sisters from his mind and headed off to the game shop where they were meeting the rest of their friends. However, even as they debated as a group what they were going to purchase, he still found himself thinking back to Sansa's mini rant about Arya, and how she had been acting strangely lately.

XXXXX-XXXXX

"Big brother?" Sansa said sweetly from the backseat of Gendry's car several hours later.

They had thought it odd when Sansa was on time to be picked out, and even more odd when she didn't protest sitting anywhere other than the passenger seat.

Heaving an exaggerated sigh, Robb turned to face his sister. She began to burble on about some sort of plan where he got their mother out of the house so she could have Joffrey come over.

"No," he said simply, then turned to face the front and pointedly ignored her wheedling from the back seat.

For a short time, she turned towards the driver's seat and contemplated Gendry, and opened her mouth as if to say something, but clamped her lips shut a moment later. Gendry was pleased, but curious to see what her plan had been for him to spend time with her mother.

When he pulled into the driveway of the Stark house, Robb invited him in, since his mom had made cookies, and Sansa ran up the stairs with a glimmer of determination in her eyes.

As he munched on a chocolate chip cookie, he heard the sound of quiet knocking from upstairs, and skipping a few minutes later. As Robb was called away to bring out the garbage and recycling, Gendry made his way upstairs and saw the room he had stopped by so many times was slightly ajar. With a light rap on the door frame he poked his head in the room.

"How's it going, pipsqueak?"

Then, in a blur, the occupant of the room rushed at him and threw her arms around him.

He froze for a minute, unsure of how to handle this new contact with Arya. Yes, she punched him a lot, but she had never hugged him before. Carefully, gently, he patted her on the back, vaguely feeling as if Robb somehow wouldn't approve of anything else.

"What's up with you?" he asked, glancing down at the top of her head.

"I'm just glad you haven't abandoned me," she whispered into his chest.

Gendry felt a surge of emotion run unexpectedly though him.

"Of course not, Arya," he said immediately. "I wouldn't do that."

Even though it would be a difficult promise to keep, he knew he would. He knew her to well for her to just be the little sister of his friend, and even though she wasn't a friend in the same way as everyone else, there was no denying she was a part of his life that he couldn't imagine not being there.


End file.
